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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LECTURES 

J 

POEMS, 



/ 



By O. 13. WHITAKER, A. M., Pd. D., 

Author of "Teachers' and Students' Manual of Elo- 
cution and Calisthenics." 



« 

2 






BUTLER & WHITAKER, 
WEAUBLEAU, HO. %, LINCOLN, EAK 



V 







Copyrighted 1896 by O.B.Whitaker. 



TO 

MY (BELO VEQ J£QTEE<R % 

TO WHOSE TENDER AND LOVING CAKE AND 
TRAINING AND EARNEST PRAYERS FOR THE DI- 
VINE GUIDANCE OK HER BOY, WHATEVER SUC- 
CESS 1 MAY ACH I EVE, WHATEVER GOOD I MAY 
DO, IS LARGELY INDEBTED, 

'"his volume is dedicated 

AS A TRIBUTE OF LOVING MEMORY 

By 

THE AUTHOR. 



Wf/PF' 



The publication of this little volume of 
"Lectures "and (Poems" was prompted by a 
hope that it might contain some new 
thoughts; that it might awaken in some 
mind a new and noble desire; that it might 
make the life of some fellow being better; 
and especially that the lecture on "Poor 
Dick and Winning Willie" might awaken 
some fellow teachers to a purer, nobler, 
more delicate sense of the responsibility 
that rests upon us as the moulders of .cur 
nation. 

While some things in this little vol- 
umn may sound harsh, rigid, or even cut- 
ting, they are the heart felt convictions of 
the author, and are sent forth with the 
kindest feelings for those with whose con- 
victions they may conflict. It is not con- 
viction that he would condemn, but preju- 
dice. 

Lincoln, Kan., Sept., 1895. 0. (B. WllUaJter. 



IS THERE A GOD? 

(discussed INDEPENDENT OF THE BIBLE.) 
The subject of a deity and its attributes 
has often been attempted and with various 
degrees of success; but in many of these in- 
stances the subject has been taken up in con- 
nection with the Bible. But, by the help of 
the same God whose very existence I am 
investigating, I purpose discussing the sub- 
ject today independent of the (Bible. You 
ask why? Do I not believe the Bible? If 
I do I believe there is a God, and so does 
every one who believes the Bible; and so I 
should be areuin^ with those who believe 
just as I do, or else I shall have assumed 
that which is not accepted by those with 
whom I am reasoning. It is my object to 
prove by the use of only such knowledge as 
every sane mind, even the atheist himself, 
must accept as true that there is a God. 



6 LECTURES. 

A young lady once riding through an 
extensive tunnel became frightened at the 
thought that the train might never again 
come to light, and she began crying and 
so continued for some time, until finally the 
conductor noticed her crying and made bold 
to ask her the cause of her sorrow. With- 
out raising her head the young lady replied, 
"Oh, will we never get out of this tunnel?" 
"Why," answered the conductor, "open your 
eyes; we have been out of that tunnel more 
than half an hour." 

To the doubting mind that is contin- 
ually crying, "If there is a God, why isthere 
not some way by which I may know it?" 
I would say, Open your eyes; there is a 
way by which you may know it. The evi- 
dence is all around you; —above, below, in 
every direction from you. It is borne to 
you on every breeze; it is heard in the song 
of every bird; it is written in the face of ev- 
ery flower that blushes by the roadside; it 
is engraved on every spear of grass in your 
pasture, on every leaf of your orchard; the 



IS THERE A GOD? J 

wind that is stealing softly through the 
leaves or murmuring mournfully round 
your cottage as you sit alone and lonely at 
your work and in your meditations is whis- 
pering it to you. The lightning that cleaves 
the heavens is thundering it in your ears. 
The clouds are writing it in the heavens 
and erasing it only for the pleasure of writ- 
ing in again. The stars have written it in 
the heavens to stand until time shall be no 
more. 

"O," says the plain, plodding matter-of- 
fact, logical man, "it is easy to use a few 
rhetorical figures and declare there is a 
God, but that does not prove it to my mind." 

Very well, I should rather talk to this 
class than to any other. — In fact, there is 
but one class of persons with whom I am de- 
cidedly afraid to engage in an argument,and 
that is the most ignorant. They always have 
the last word in a discussion, and they nev- 
er fail to "carry. their points." To illustrate: 
It is said there was once an old colored 
preacher whose ignorance had made him 



6 LECTURES. 

noted. In one of his harangues he made the 
statement that the earth "was a res tin' on a 
rock," and then he challenged any one to dif- 
fer with him. A learned doctor was there 
and being urged by a number present and 
thinking it a chance for a little Innocent fun 
accepted the challenge with, "You say 
the earth is resting on a rock, brother Jones?" 

"Yes, sah." 

"Well, what does thai rock rest upon?" 

"Dat rock — dat rock — why, dat rock 
am a restin' on a nuddah rock." 

"And what does 'the other' rock rest up- 
on?" 

The old darkey leaned back in his 
chair and with a half contemptuous' smile 
replied, "Bruder Morgan, I's sorry yo' reas- 
on don't lead yo' furder in advance. De 
same argiment will answer dat as what an- 
swered de uddah. — 'Dat rock am a restin' 

ON A NUDDAH ROCK." 

This brought forth the applause of the 
old colored brother's entire congregation. 
The doctor determined to make one 



IS THERE A GOD? 9 

more attempt: 'Brother Jones," he said, "I 
suppose there must be a last rock some- 
where, is there not?" 

"A las' rock — a las' rock — " he said 
falteringly; then his face lighted up, and he 
replied, "certainly, certainly, Brudder Mor- 
gan." 

"Well," said the doctor, thinking he 
now had him cornered, "what does this last 
rock rest upon?" 

"Dat rock — dat las' rock, — why, dat 
rock res' on de firs' one ob a nuddah series 
ob rocks;" and the house trembled with ap- 
plause. 

It is impossible to convince a fool. 
But to our subject. The remainder of my 
discourse shall be directed to the plain, 
matter-of-fact, logical man or woman. 

If a weight be held above the earth and 
its support removed, does any one doubt 
that it would fall to the earth? Would the 
same thing happen in Europe? In Africa? 
Anywhere on the face of the earth? You 
say, yes. Well, what is the cause? Oh,you 



IO LECTURES. 

say, that is so simple; everybody knows 
that But I am asking you for the cause. 
Why not dash upward instead of down- 
ward? You answer you suppose there 
must be a law governing its movement, 
since it is the same everywhere on the face 
of the ear tli Exactly. 

As you walk through your orchard 
pluck a leaf from your apple tree It has 
an arrangement peculiar to itself, so pecul- 
iar indeed as to distinguish it from all oth- 
er leaves. Would you know the apple-tree, 
its fruit and its leaf even though you were 
to come in contact with them on the other 
side of the earth? Again, you look around 
you and see the grass growing; you see 
horses cattle, hogs, sheep, man himself; you 
travel to any other part of the world, and 
there you find the grass and all other veg- 
etation growing in the same manner, affect- 
ed by the same conditions; you recognize 
the same animals there; they eat the same 
food, drink the same drink, and are subject to 
the same habits as here; vou find man hold- 



IS Til EKE A GOD? I T 

ing the same dominion there as here; he as- 
sumes the same upright position, lives as 
you do, thinks as you do, and acts as you 
do. You ask me to explain, and I answer 
you as you did me: There must be a law that 
governs the creation of all things on earth. 

Now let us stand to one side and view 
our own world. Behold a massive ball roll- 
ing in space, unsupported, yet following an 
imaginary route year after year and rolling 
over once every twenty-four hours. 

What holds this ball weighing six 
thousand billion billion tons in place, and 
rolls it over once every twenty-four hours, 
and carries round the sun along a path five 
hundred million miles in length once every 
year? 

Man's ingenuity has been able after 
years of toil to send us at a rate of one 
mile a minute; but a ride on a train at 
this rate is always accompanied with 
danger, and the best engine can run but 
a lew miles at this rate until it must stop 
?rd oil ?nd cool off. Had you ever stopped 



12 LECTURES. 

to think that we are at this moment dash- 
ing through space at the rate of over a 
thousand miles an hour? It is a fact, and 
the earth has continued at this rate for 
ages and ages past and will continue until 
the Power that is directing its course shall 
declare that time shall be no more; and yet 
it has never stopped to oil or cool off, and 
there has never been a single accident. 
This earth is but one of an innumerable 
host of heavenly bodies. Behold the stars 
at night. Did you ever count them? Impos- 
sible! And yet with the naked eye you 
cannot see one per cent of those that can 
be seen with the strongest glasses; and eve- 
ry time a stronger glass is invented thous- 
ands of new worlds are brought within 
range of our vision; and so we are led on 
and on, until we are lost in amazement. 
Worlds without end! Rolling, revolving,dash- 
Lng, circling, — some dashing through space 
at the rate of thousands of miles per hour; 
and yet every one has its own path to fol- 
low, and they never vary a hair's breadth. 



IS THERE A GOT)? 13 

You pay a dollar to visit the best 
circus in the world. One of the chief attrac- 
tions is the man who lies flat on his back 
and by the vigorous use of his hands and 
feet keeps half-a-dozen balls the size of 
one's head in the air. He continues this 
feat for a few minutes and then rises pant- 
ing for bnath, almost exhausted. You 
applaud him and go away wondering how 
it was possible for him to perform such 
a feat; arid truly it is a great feat. But what 
is that compared to the movements of the 
heavenly bodies? There is a being here 
that is handling- not a half dozen balls, but 
a million million balls; not the size of ones 
head, but many times the size this world; 
he is not tossing them through a space of 
five feet, but he is tossing some of them 
through circles that require them years 
though they travel many thousand miles 
an hour; not cold balls all of them, but 
some of them so hot that we feel their 
scorching heat at a distance of a hundred 
million miles from them; and yet he is toss- 



14 LECTURES. 

ing them with a precision that cannot be 
surpassed. He tosses them all through dif- 
ferent paths, at different distances, and 
with different velocities; yet he never allows 
two of them to clash together, and he was 
never known to drop one. 

Do you ask me to explain the move- 
ments of these worlds? 1 -can answer you 
only by saying that there is a law that gov- 
erns the movements of the heavenly bodies 
No one can even so much as doubt that. Now 
have I my hearers with me thus far? Do you 
agree with me that there are certain tixed 
laws, unexplainable, incomprehensible, laws 
that can not be broken, that govern the 
movements of the heavenly bodies, the 
movements of this earth, the change of our 
seasons, of our day into night, that govern 
the formation of the flower, the leaf, the 
fruit; in short, that govern the creation and 
determine the destiny of ever)' object, organ- 
ic or inorganic, upon the face of the earth? 
] Ken we are read}- for cur concluding argu- 
ment. The same power that governs the 



IS THERE A GOD? I 5 

movements of the heavenly bodies must 
govern the movements of the earth, the same 
power that governs the seasons of the 
earth must be the power that has laid 
down the laws that govern t^e creation, the 
development, the action and the final des- 
tiny of all its possessions. I conclude this 
from the fact that all the laws work in per- 
fect harmony; there are no two that are an- 
tagonistic. There is but one conclusion, and 
that is, that chey must have all had a com- 
mon origin. 

I again appeal to your reason for the 
last time today. Is it possible to have a law 
without a maker, or giver? After the law has 
been given, is it possible, that it should be 
enforced without some power to enforce 
it? Have you ever known of such a thing 
in your experience 5 Is it possible for you 
even to conceive of such a thing? You 
answer, It is beyond our comprehension; it is 
beyond possibility. Then we are agreed 
that there is a power that made all these 
laws which we call "laws of nature," that they 



1 6 LECTURES. 

« 

all have a common origin, and that the same 
power that made them is enforcing them. 
This power, my friends, is the power which 
we call GOD. Is there any one who can 
even doubt its existence? 

"O thou eternal One, whose presenes bright 

All space doth occupy, all motion guide, 
Unchanged through Time's all devastating flight? 

Thou only God — there is no God beside! 
Being above all beings! Mighty One, 

Whom none can comprehend and none explore, 
Who fill'st existence with thyself alone, 

Embracing all, supporting, ruling o'er; 
Being whom we call God, and know no more! 



CHURCH UNION. 

A (Plea Against Human Creeds. 

Nothing has ever been accomplished by 
talking through the veil of modesty or del- 
icacy or affectation. The great reformers 
of the world have been plain-spoken and 
out-spoken men. The man who lives a reas- 
onable time and dies without having an en- 
emy has lived in vain. The men who have no 
convictions are the ciphers thrown into this 
world to be used by other men or organiza- 
tions; they were created, as was everything 
else, from nothing, the only difference being 
that the material was not changed in the 
process of their creation. The man who has 
convictions and, through a fear of public o- 
pinion or anything else, is afraid to give ex- 
presion to his convictions is, I think, of all 
cowards the most miserable. The man who 
has convictions and the courage to speak 



1 8 LECTURES. 

them in the face of opposition is, I believe, 
the most truly happy of all mankind. 

Every age has had its superstitions, ev- 
ery nation has been corrupted by its evils, 
every organization has had its prejudices; — 
in fact, every sun of enlightenment has had 
its rays obstructed by the clouds of adver- 
sity, the fogs of ignorance, the dust and im- 
purities of bigotry and egotism and selfish- 
ness and has been eclipsed by the comets 
of superstition. 

Nearly nineteen centuries ago, when 
the religious heavens were dark and lower- 
ing, when the lightnings of hatred and ma- 
levolence were leaping from cloud to thun- 
dering cloud, when the deep angry growl of 
ire and oppression reverberated through 
the furious heavens, when each nation taught 
that religion was to murder their fellow be- 
ings of other nationalities, when vice was 
termed virtue, when avarice and brotherly 
hatred hid themselves behind the name 
philanthropy, a star was seen in the East, 
and the air was filled with a heavenly host 



CHURCH UNION. 19 

shouting, "Glory to God in the highest and 
on earth peace, good will toward men." 
These were the heralds of the "Light of the 
World," the Sun of Righteousness, whose 
rays of love were to scatter the deep, dark, 
sullen clouds that were thickening over us, 
whose firm, tender, sweet tones were to 
hush the angry rumblings of oppression, the 
brightness of whose example and precept 
was to outshine the lightnings of hatred 
and malevolence and selfishness. This is 
the subject of my discourse tonight, — this 
morning star, this meek and lowly Jesus 
this lamb of God. My friends, I plead with 
you, I beg you, to reason with me tonight; 
and God being our helper let us lay aside 
prejudice, let us lay aside envy, and let us 
feel toward each other for a few short mo- 
ments as our blessed Savior felt toward us, 
poor weak finite creatures. 

In what condition is the church of 
our God today? Had you ever stopped to 
think? I hear the One who laid down His 
life for the foundation of this church plead- 



20 LECTURES. 

ing in those sweet earnest tones, "Holy fa- 
ther, keep through thine own name those 
whom thou hast given me, that they may 
be one as we are." — John 17: 11. And I 
ask you today, Do you think that the Christ- 
ian world is one even as the Father and 
the: Son are one? I read from Dr. Clark, the 
great commentator, "As soon as they [min- 
isters of one denomination] hear of a lost 
sheep being found by other ministers, they 
give all diligence to get that one into their 
told; but display little earnestness in seek- 
ing ,'n the wilderness for those that are lost." 
Is that the same sense in which Christ and 
the Father are one? And I read from the 
pen of Reverend T. H. Stockton, twenty 
years a minister of the Methodist church, 
and who was expelled from that denomina- 
tion because he procured the Masonic Hall 
in which to preach afternoon sermons "free 
from creeds"; who was expelled from the 
Methodist church because he became too 
liberal, too broad-minded; who was expelled 
from that sect because he became too God- 



CHURCH UNION. 21 

like. He says, "The Bible, I say the Bible 
only, is the Religion of Christians. With 
the Whole Exclusive Creed System, as the 
very Embodiment of False Authority, — I re- 
nounce all fellowship. How can Christians 
be One while this divisive system stands? 
Away with it! - and let us all gather about 
the Neglected Book of God." And contin- 
uing speaking of creed, he says, "Who art 
thou, O Giant of evil! that thou shouldst 
hinder His prayer — "That they all may be 
one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in 
thee, that they also may be one in us, 
THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE 
THAT THOU HAST SENT ME.'" I 
look around me and behold an hundred dif- 
ferent denominations standing out separate 
and distinct — I ask you, Are they one? 
Behold a Baptist church striving against a 
Presbyterian; — are they one as Christ and 
the Father? As I read of a Methodist 
North striving and debating and prose- 
lyting against a Methodist South, I ask 
you if that is the fulfillment oi the prayer of 



2 2 LECTURES. 

Christ, I look around me and see in the 
same town a half dozen or a dozen churches 
within almost hearing distance of each oth- 
er, all holding services at the same hour, and 
the members of the one never attending 
services at another; and I ask you if you 
think Christ attends one worship and the 
Father another. Who ever heard of Christ 
building up a church and God slipping a- 
round among its members and stirring up 
strife and trying to persuade them to with- 
draw and come over to His church 5 Who 
ever heard of Christ laughing in His sleeve 
because the church of God was becoming 
weaker? 

The pages of history are black and 
bloodclotted with the record of things that 
have sheltered themselves under the cano- 
py of religion. Nations have stolen the 
homes from widows; priests have taken the 
bread from the mouths of starving orphans; 
sects have burned at the stake the best and 
purest creatures among God's children; — 
my friends, all the evils and tortures and 



CHURCH UNION. 23 

injustices of the world have hidden them- 
selves behind the name religion. And 
are the churches free from those evils to- 
day? I would to God they were. But no; 
I hear Christ pleading, "Holy Father, keep 
them one as we are;" and behold all over 
our land the ministers of the different 
sects 'tearing to pieces the church of God! 

I can imagine the troubled, sorrowful, 
pleading countenance of my Savior as he 
looks down upon the scene. The church 
has been called "the bride of Christ;" and 

1 ask you, How can you be servants of 

Christ when you are tearing to pieces his 

beloved bride? Behold a minister of a 

creed, calling himself a servant of God, 

seizing the sword of sectarianism and 

thrusting it to the heart of the "bride of 

Christ;" and behold him draw forth the 

blade bespattered and dripping with her 

pure innocent blood, and hear him with 

his bloody hands lifted toward heaven 

exclaim, "Glory to God in the highest!" — O 

Hypocracy, thou art brazen ! O my brother 



24 LECTURES. 

how can you serve God by building up sects 
when Christ is praying for union? And the 
Reverend Stockton answers the question; 
"Before God," he says "I believe the chief 
hindrance in the way of my accomplishment 
of great good is THE LOVE OF MON- 
EY indulged in by professors of religion." 
The church today harbors the greatest 
hypocrites of the world, and creed is the 
food upon which they live. Is it any won- 
der that infidels point the finger of scorn at 
the church? When you ask them to unite 
with the Church of God is it any wonder 
they sneer ingly answer, "With which one of 
the five hundred do you mean?" Myfriends, 
I cannot help agreeing with the infidel when 
he said, "I would rather be an infidel out of 
the church than an infidel and a hypocrite 
in the church." 

When I hear a half dozen bells of as 
many different denominations ring out on 
a Sunday morning the sound sometimes 
grates on my ear, and I sometimes feel as if 
they were not chiming the anthems of glory; 



CHURCH UNION. 25 

t here seems to be no harmony in their 
chimes, but only discord and wrangling and 
contention. Why, I sometimes get worked 
up to such a pitch that I find myself thinking 
things almost wicked about those bells. I 
have even sometimes caught myself wonder- 
ing if God would not be pleased if all those 
bells should be cast into one great bell that 
would ring out the gospel call through the 
land far and wide; and to quiet my nerves 
I t ike down my bible and open and read* 
"And there shall be one fold and one shep- 
herd ; ,r and that explains it all. 

"O," says my Methodist brother, "that 
is just what we are laboring for — the .un- 
ion of all Christians." And my Baptist 
brother replies, "Nothing would please us 
better than to have all Christians unite 
with us." And the Presbyterians say, "No 
church has worked harder to affect a union 
of all Christians than we have." 

"Upon what basis?" I ask. And they 
all answer in concert, "The Bible." 

Well, that is a little surprising! So I 



26 LECTURES. 

have no opposition at all? I have gone to 
the trouble of preparing a lecture on Ghuroh 
Union, and lo! we are all of one opinion, of 
the same mind, united; and what is that 
but "church union?" Now is not this a hap- 
py state of affairs for the church? Does it 
not make your heart beat taster with joy 
and love and gratitude to think we are all 
united in one brotherhood and in one belief? 
Five hundred millions united in one grand 
army! Think of it! I feel almost like shouting 
hallelujah as I rush over to grasp the hand 
of fellowship of my Baptist brother — but 
I stop, stare and feel a little dizzy as my 
Baptist brother steps back from me and says, 
"No, sir; 1 cannot fellowship you until you 
have been immersed by a Baptist minister." 
And 1 say. "1 thought it was written in 
the Bible, 'He that believeth and is baptiz- 
ed shall be saved'; and I believe and have 
been baptized, and why will you not re- 

cieve me as a brother in Christ?" 

'•(J" he says, "that means immersion 

Try a (Baptist minister." 



CHURCH UNION. 2J 

And I say," -Oh!" 

And I turn to grasp the hand of my 
Methodist brother; aud he steps back very 
politely and says "Just hold your hand out 
there six months, and I will give it a shake." 

And at the end of the six months as 
he is about to extend to me the hand of 

fellowship,! say (rather reluctantly), "I beg 
your pardon, but did you not say you were 
founded on the Bible?" 

"Why, yes." 

"Will you be so kind as to tell me 
where the Bible teaches that one should be 
kept 'on probation' six months?" 

"O, that is in the 'Wesley addition' to 
the Scriptures." 

And I say, "Oh!" 

And he continues, "There are a few 
questions you must answer before receiving 
the hand of full fellowship." And he opens 
his book of creed and prepares to read; and 
I gather courage to ask if that is the Bible. 
And he says, "O no, it is only an explan- 
ation of parts of the Bible." 



28 LECTURES. 

"Does the Bible teach that menshould 
have creeds not found in the Bible?" 

"O," he says, "that is also in the 'Wes- 
ley addition' to the Scriptures." 

And I say, "Oh!" And just then anoth- 
er thought enters my mind, and I start up 
with, "Of what use is the creed?" 

"O, it makes plain the scriptures where 
ordinary persons could not otherwise un- 
derstand them, which you will perceive as I 
read;" and he proceeds to read, beginning 
at the very first of his creed book: "There 
is but one living and true God, everlasting, 
without body or parts, of infinite power, 
wisdom and goodness; the maker and pre- 
server of all things, visible and invisible." — 
And that sounds so much like the Bible I 
cannot help exclaiming, "I believe! I believe! 
that is just what I gleaned from the Bible!" 
— And he reads on the remainder of the 
first section; "And in unity of this Godhead 
there are three persons, of one substance, 
power and eternity — the Father, the Son 
and the Holy Ghost." And he adds, "Do 



CHURCH UNION. 2 9 

you believe?" 

"No." 

"Why?" 

"I can't understand how the Father and 
the Son can be the same age." 

"The next section will explain that." 

"Well," I say, "I don't see how they are 
'equal in power' when it is written in the Bi- 
ble, 'Of that day and hour knoweth no man, 
no, not the angels which are in heaven, nei- 
ther the Son, but the Father'." 

"O, that has nothing to do with this." 

"But," I say, "what did Christ mean 
when he said, 'My Father is greater than 

r?" 

And my Methodist brother warms up 
a little on the subject, as he replies, "That 
exactly illustrates the use of our 'Discipline.' 
You see you can't understand the Bible as 
it is, and the 'Discipline' explains it for you." 

And I say, "Oh!" 

He proceeds, "I tell you the Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost are of one substance 
and power and eternity; and unless you be- 



30 LECTURES. 

lieve it you cannot be admitted into the 
True Church. Do you believe?" 

And I answer tremblingly "Y-e-s;" and 
I breathe a silent prayer; "Lord, help thou 
mine unbelief." 

We are through with the first section 
of the creed, and my brother proceeds to 
read the second; "The Son, who is the Word 
of the Father, the very and' eternal God 
of one substance with the Father, took man's 
nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so 
that two whole and perfect natures, that is to 
say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined 
together in one person, never to be divided* 
whereof is one Christ, very God and very 
man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead 
and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and 
to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, 
but also for the actual sins of men." And 
after taking a long breath, he asks, "Isn't 
that plain? Do you believe it?" 

And I answer; "Does that mean that the 
Son of God is the 'very and eternal God?" 

"Most assuredly." 



CHURCH UNION. 3 1 

"What did Jesus mean when He said, 
c O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me;' and 'Thinkest thou that I can 
not pray to my Father 5 ' and 'I do nothing 
of myself; but as the Father hath taught me» 
I speak these things;' and what did He 
mean when He said, 'Therefore doth my 
Father love me?' And why does Christ 
speak of his Father in the third person in 
fifty different places in the Bible? And why 
does the voice from heaven say, 'This is my 
beloved SonT And why did Christ on the 
cross cry out, 'My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me?" 

"That is simply the human nature con- 
versing with the divine nature." 

"Then it was really Christ talking to 
Himself; i e, one half talking to the other 
half ? was it?" 

"Exactly, exactly." 

And I say, "O"! "But," I continue, "Did 
you not say the human and divine natures 
were united 'never to be divided'?" 

"That is exactly as the Discipline reads, 



32 LECTURES. 

sir." 

"And this divine nature is the very and 
eternal God?" 

"Yes." 

"And they both (the human nature and 
the divine nature) taken together were 
Christ?" ; 

"Yes" 

"And then Christ was crucified and 
dead and buried?" 

"Yes." 

"To reconcile His Father (which was 
Himself) to us?" 

"Yes" 

"Then if Christ is G3d, and Christ was 
dead for three days, God was dead for three 
days; and so the world was without a God 
three days, and it moved along about as 
well as usual. And if we could get along 
without a God three days why could we 
not get along without a God six days, and 
a year, and so forever? And so the Athe- 
ists doctrine is not so bad after all since it 
is exactly in harmony with your creed, is it?" 



CHURCH UNION. 33 

"O, you are mistaken in all that God 
never died. That was the human nature 
of Christ that died." 

"Then they were divided for three days?" 

"No! THE DISCIPLINE SAYS THEY WERE 
JOINED TOGETHER IN ONE PERSON, 

NEVER TO be divided! and the disci- 
pline is in exact harmony with thebible!" 

And I say, "Oh!" 

And he proceeds, "You have to believe 
this, or you cannot be a member of the true 
church. Qo you "believe?" 

And I answer, "Ye-y-e-s"; and I again 
repeat (out loud this time) , "Lord, help 
thou mine unbelief" for I begin to think I 
have not much else to help. 

My friends, these are the first two of 
the twenty-five "Articles of Religion" of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. I do not 
speak concerning this church because it is 
the worst, for on the contrary, I consider it 
one of the best creed churches in our land. 
I mention it simply to give my argument 
form. I mention it because it is one of the 



34 LECTURES. 

stongest churches in our country, and it 
has defenders everywhere 

Tlv re are many things about the 
Methodist church, as about every other 
Christian church, that I like. Some of the 
best people in the world have been mem- 
bers of this church, and there are many a- 
mong its members whom I should be griev- 
ed to cancel from my list of friends. In 
short, 1 am not attacking people but prin- 
ciples. I am pleading for the same thing 
that my Master pleaded for when on earth. 
I am pleading for the Bible as against 
human creed. I am pleading for union 
as against denominations. I am pleading 
for brotherly-love and fellowship of God's 
children as against selfishness and "close- 
communion" and narrowness. I am pleading 
for a grand advance all along the lines 
against Satan and intemperance and whore- 
dom and prostitution and degrading fash- 
ions and all other polluting evils instead of 
strife a^d contention and war among de- 
nominations. I am pleading for conver- 



CHURCH UNION. 35 

si on instead of proselyting. I would to 
God that every church house in this city 
could be torn down and all the material 
collected and as much more added to it to 
build an edifice in which there might be a 
seat for every man, woman and child of our 
community. I would that the same thing 
were done in every other city and commu- 
nity in our land. Then the money spent by 
the different denominations in fighting each 
other, and in hiring their little "preachers" 
who possess no other qualifications except 
their a goodness",who have no extraordinary 
knowledge except of their creed, who 
can't make a living at anything else and so 
are retained as an act of charity — I say we 
could then support ministers who were 
worthy of the name; we could then employ 
shepherds who were qualified to lead the 
children of God. We would no longer be 
compelled to employ "blind leaders of the 
blind." "But O" say the ministers of the 
differeut denominations, "what will become 
of us?" My friends, I want to tell you that 



36 LECTURES. 

right here is one of the greatest hindrances 
to church union. The "preachers" of the 
different denominations are crying out in 
their hearts (of course they do not speak 
it out), "What will become of me?" — The 
poet Cowper has said in his finest poem, 
"All pastors are alike to wandering sheep, 
resolved to follow none. Two gods divide 
them all — Pleasure and Gain: for these 
they live, they sacrifice to these, and in 
their service wage perpetual war with Con- 
science and with God." While this is cer- 
tainlyjiot true of all, yet could all the ; pas- 
tors of the world be made to stand put fac- 
ing their congregations, and by some mys- 
terious power this sentence could be written 
on the face of every pastor who is guilty 
of the accusation, the world would be start- 
led at the sight! 

"O," say the other denominations, "you 
are pleading for union of all Christians, and 
so are we. You ask them to unite with you 
on the Bible, and so do we. It seems there 
is not much difference after all." 



CHURCH UNION. 37 

There may exist a similarity in the 
wording, but when we come to examine we 
shall find there is a wonderful difference in 
the meaning. Such is often the case, and 
we are often led astray on account of it. I 
was reading the other day of a vain woman 
who came tripping into her parlor all starch- 
ed and primped and painted and with an un- 
usual smile on her face, and she said to her 
husband, who was lying on the sofa reading, 
"Husband deah, what was it that cashiah 
Browning said about me? Did he not re- 
mahk that I was dove-like?" — "Something 
like that," said the husband looking up stu- 
pidly,"! think he said you were pigeon-toed." 

I am willing to concede that every 
Christian denomination is pleading, as we 
are, for a union of all Christians. I con- 
cede that every other denomination of the 
Christian faith is holding forth the Bible, 
as we are, upon which to unite. Some oth- 
ers are claiming to make the Bible the only 
rule of faith and practice. And yet there is 
not another denomination on the face of the 



38 LECTURES. 

earth that is throwing open its gates wide 
enough to admit all Christians. Under- 
stand me.— I repeat it: THERE IS NO 
OTHER CHURCH IN THE WHOLE 
WORLD WHOSE GATES ARE O- 
PEN TO ALL CHRISTIANS! Do you 
believe that, my brother? Do you believe 
that, my sister? Do you believe that your 
church is shutting its doors against lellow 
beings that the gates of heaven will be open 
to? 

The best way to know whether you 
can gain admittance at a gate or a door is 
to try it And suppose we now try one or 
two church doors. I knock at the door of 
the Presbyterian Church. The door swings 
open, and behold a great D. D. stands be- 
fore me, and asks, "What do you want?" 

I answer, "I believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ with all my soul, mind and strength. 
I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of the 
true and living God. And I am plead- 
ing for admission into the church of God." 

"Well," says the doctor "you have cer- 



CHURCH UNION. 39 

tainly knocked at the right door. Do you 
understand the Word of God?" 

"Not all of it; but I think I understand 
enough that I can be a Christian, and by 
the help of God I expect to continue stud- 
ying it and growing in the knowledge of 
the word. I understand the commandments 
and am determined to try to keep them. I 
have read of the life of my blessed Savior, of 
his trials and temptations, of his sufferings 
and his cruel death; and I know that he 
died for me, and I am burning with a desire 
to follow in his foot-steps. I think I know 
the plan of salvation, for there is something 
within me that tells me that I am the Lord s 
and He is mine: and I am happy in my 
hope for heaven. O, I know there is a real- 
ity in religion." 

"That is all very good," says the learn- 
ed doctor, "but those things are of minor 
importance. Do you believe in the Holy 
Trinity?" 

"The what?" 

"Do you believe in the Trinity 5 " 



4° LECTURES. 

I feel wonderfully mortified, and I re- 
ply, "1 beg your pardon, Reverend Doctor; 
I'm sorry: but I've read the Bible through 
and through, and I've tried to study it care- 
fully; and I suppose I have passed over all 
the really important things, for although 
I've no doubt it's all through the Bible on 
account of its great importance, yet I can't 
remember a single place where it occurs in 
the Holy Book. Pray tell me what it means." 

"Why, that means the union of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost in One. They 
are equal in substance, .. in power and in 
eternity. Do you believe that-*" 

And I say, "I thought that Jesus was 
the Son of God; and /thought that Messi- 
ah meant the one sent of God, and how 
could He send himself; and /thought Jesus 
said, My Father is greater than I'; and I 
thought it was God that said to Jesus, 'This 
is my beloved Son' (but that was God talk- 
ing to himself); and I didn't know God died 
for me, — / thought he gave his Son to 
die for me; and /didn't know that Jesus 



CHURCH UNION. 41 

was talking to himself when he said, 'My 
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' 
Oh, that takes all the meaning out of the 
Bible. I can't believe that. Can I not be 
admitted without believing that 5 " 

"It is impossible," says the learned doc- 
tor. 

"Is there any other door of admission 

to the church of God?" 

"Well, yes;" says the doctor, "It is 
claimed there are over an hundred others." 

"And will any of them admit me with- 
out my believing the 'Holy Trinity?" 

"O yes," he answers, "there are a num- 
ber that will." 

And can I go to heaven through that 
way?" 

"Well, I think it is possible; yet it is a 
little doubtful." 

"I want to go the right road. Tell me 
what to do." 

"Well," says the D. D., laying his hand 
paternally on my head, "the best thing for 
vou to do is to come into my Bible class 



42 LECTURES. 

and I will instruct you in the way of li c e. 
You need an instructor. And in the me. n 
time you had better procure a book of the 
discipline of our church and study that. 
Just lay the jBible aside for awhile aud study 
the cret d, and you will come around all 
right" 

A id I go away sorrowful. The very 
things that 1 had founded my hopes upon 
are of le ist importance, and I had not un- 
derstood the Word at all. 

The lock of the Trinity is barring ou 
from the denominations that make that an 
article of their creed thousands of the best 
and purest Christians of the world. My 
friends, do you think that lock will be found 
on the doors of heaven? Do you think we 
shall be shut out from heaven because we 
cannot believe as you do? 

'O n , says the Disciple Church, some- 
times called Campbellites, and sometimes 
(more agreeably) called Christian, "you are 
preaching our belief exactly. We have no 
creed. W e take the Bible and the Rible 



CHURCH UNION. 43 

only." I know you often claim that, my broth- 
er; but you ought not. While you have less 
creed than most other creed churches, you 
nevertheless have a creed; L e., you put an 
interpretation on the scriptures, and require 
that those admitted shall comply with it, 
and you ought to so state your belief on 
all oeciuo~n Ymi hive no more right to 
say you have no creed than has any other 
sect. Y mi hive a fixed and immovable 
creed on the subject of baptism You say 
the Bible teaches immersion, and the whole 
Baptist church chimes in "Amen.". I believe 
that too. The difference between us is not 
in our belief concerning baptism so much as 
in charity. I believe there are Christians 
who do not believe as I do. I believe there 
are Christians, true Christians (and I be- 
lieve they will be admitted at the gates of 
heaven), who do not believe the Bible teach- 
es water baptism at all. I believe there are 
Christians who think sprinkling is the right 
baptism, others who believe in dipping of 
pouring. And, my brother, do you think all 



44 LECTURES. 

these will be sent to hell because they do 
not believe as you do? Do you think they 
will be damned because they were not giv- 
en minds of understanding such as you 
have? What a pity Calvin and Wesley and 
those thousands of other religious magnates 
were not given such minds of understanding 
as the weakest, most ignorant, most insig- 
nificant Baptist possesses! 

The lock of Immersion is barring out 
thousands of true Christians from the Disci- 
ples and other Baptist churches. And, my 
Baptist brother, don't you think you are shut- 
ting out some that the gates of heaven will be 
open to? Don't you think you will meet some 
of your Methodist neighbors and friends in 
heaven who have never been immersed? 
Don't you think you will meet your sainted 
mother in heaven who believed in pouring 
as baptism? Don't you think you'll meet 
your old Quaker grandmother in heaven 
who believed that water baptism was only a 
form of worship and so rejected it along 
with all other forms of worship? And what 



CHURCH UNION. 45 

would you do with one who should come 

to you for advice, and he tells you that he 
cannot understand that the Bible means 
immersion when it speaks of baptism; and 
he asks you how he shall be baptised? Will 
you tell him to be immersed? I wouldn't. 
Why? Because Paul says, ''He that doubteth 
is damned if he eat, because he eateth not 
of faith: FOR WHATSOEVER IS NOT 
OF FAITH IS SIN.' "Rom. 14: 35. 

My friends, what is creed? If it is es- 
sential to salvation, why was it not written 
in the Bible? Why did Christ leave unsaid 
what he ought to have said, — the very 
things that are to be the tests of fitness for 
admission to the church which He founded? 
If it was intended for Luther, for Calvin, for 
Wesley, for Campbell, for Joseph Smith or 
Brigham Young to interpret or add to the 
scriptures as they were handed to us, why 
were not their names mentioned therein, as 
were the names of the other prophets? My 
friends, how are we to know the true inter- 
preters, the true prophets, from the false? 



46 LECTURES. 

How are we to know which of these conflict- 
ting interpretations to receive and which to 
reject? Why aid not the writers of the Bi 
ble add thes t things and put these interpre- 
tations on the scriptures if they were essen- 
tial to salvation? Let hi n who attempts to 
interpret the scripture; and make such i 1- 
terpretation binding upon any one but him* 
self sh >w his name \n the sacred prophecies. 
Let him who attempts to add creed to the 
teachings of th~ Bible show his papers of 
authority; and then there will be reason to 
follow his teachings. 

I believe the teachings of the Bible are 
sufficient unto salvation. I believe we should 
"search the scriptures,'' for in them we 
think we have eternal life; and where in the 
sa:red word is it written, 'Search the creeds 
of men"? Butwh.it :s written on that sub- 
ject? T open the book and read, "In vain 
do th ty worship me teaching for doctrine 
the commandments of men." Matthew 15: 9. 
What an awful s uitonc *! My brother, 
have you studied seriously whether you 



CHURCH UNION. 47 

are teaching instead of the Bible the doc- 
trines of men? 

My Iriends, it seems to me that I could 
talk or write on this subject for months 
without stopping. It seems impossible for 
me to come to a systematic close, and so I 
shall be compelled to close abruptly, which 
I shall do by giving you, in the form of a 
summary, twenty-five reasons for Church 
Union and against Creed. 

TWENTY-FIVE (REASONS 

FO(E CHURCH UJVI0J7: 
i.The Bible teaches union. 
2.Nowhere does the Bible speak in fa- 
vor of sects. 

3«Christ prayed to his father for the un- 
ion of all Christians. 

4.The more extensive the creed the 
greater the tendency to worship in form, 
which is everywhere condemned in the Bible. 
5, The reason that Christ assigned for 
union, "Thai the w> rid m^y teaeve it. at 
thou "zasi sent ttw" 

6 Christ and the apostles termed an 



48 LECTURES. 

universal Church, but never formed sects. 

7. Christ and the apostles condemned 
those that were formed during their time. 

8. Denominations spend more time, 
money and energy in fighting each other 
than they do in fighting the devil. 

9. Clark, the great Methodist com- 
mentator, says, "The zeal which leads per- 
sons to persecute others for religious opin- 
ions is not less a seed of the devil, than a 
a bad opinion itself is." 

10. Creeds and sects tend to devel- 
op a feeling of eravy and strife, which is 
in direct opposition to charity — "The 
greatest of these is charity/' 

11. Creeds are almost invariably based 
upon non-essentials. 

12. Hundreds and thousands of per- 
sons are prevented from joining any church 
simply because they do not know which 
is the true church. 

13. Creed often separates in their 
worship the children of the same family, 
thus rending the most sacred of earthly 



CHURCH UNION. 49 

ti s. 

14. Often husband and wife are sepa- 
rated in their worship, which when it is not 
the so irce of domestic quarrels at least 
sows the seeds of infidelity in the hearts of 
the children. 

15. On an average less than one-fourth 
of the members of the different sects under- 
star d and believe the teachings of the creeds 
of their churches. (If we had exact statis- 
tics, I believe the number would be placed 
at one-tenth instead of one-fourth). 

16. Over half of the members of the 
different denominations enter those church- 
es, not on account ol their peculiar beliefs, 
but on account of surrounding circumstan- 
ces at the time of their conversion. This 
is well illustrated by the fact that over one- 
half of those who join a church during a re- 
vival join the church holding the revival. 

1 7. The strongest and only unswer- 
able argument that infidels have urged a- 
gainst the church is a reference to its divi- 
sions. 



50 LECTURES. 

1 8. There is unquestionably more strife 
and enmity and contention today among 
the different denominations than the re is 
between the church as a whole and infidel- 
ity. 

19. Division of God's children is 
the work of the devil; union of Gods 
children is the work of God. 

20. All really great and broad-minded 
and noble men have risen above creed; and 
those denominations that claim to have re- 
cieved their creed from such are often only 
wallowing in the tracks such men have left 
in the mud, while the real man whom they 
profess to follow is in the pure atmosphere 
above. 

2 1 . The Bible says, "Search the Script- 
zn^es, for in them ye think ye have eternal 
life;" Creed says, "Ye may think it, but ye 

are mistaken; ye may find a part of it there, 
but ye must search me to find it all." The 
Bible says, "Come, let us reason together;" 
Creed says; "That was not meant for poor 
fcols like vou, — that meant Wesley and 



CHURCH UNION. 5 I 

I lit her and Calvin and Joseph Smith; it is 
\ciiv duty to swallow the pill just as it is 
given you, and don't chew it." 

22. Paul describes the "whole armor 
of God" as follows: "Wherefore take unto 
you the whole armor of God, that ye may 
be able to withstand in the evil day, and 
having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, 
having your loins girt about with truth,and 
having on the breast-plate of righteousness; 
and your feet shod with the preparation of 
the gospel of peace; above all, taking the 
shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to 
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
And take the helmet of salvation, and the 
sword of the spirit, which is the word of 
God." Why did not Paul mention the creed? 
He mentioned the Bible as a part of the 
armor of God, and is not the creed a part 
also? I will tell you how I should answer 
the question if I were arguing the other 
side: Paul was here representing the Christ- 
ian life as a warfare. Now in order to war 
you must first find or make an enemy; and 



52 LECTURES. 

nothing has ever yet succeeded so well in 
stirring up strife and contention and envy 
and hatred and malice — nothing has ever 
yet succeeded so well in finding and making 
enemies, as has creed; and so it has a place, 
and Paul simply overlooked it in making 
out this bill for a Christian armor. 

23. The strongest supporters of the creed 
system today are those who depend upon 
it for their income. 

54. Cowper, that sweet, honest singer 
says, ''Religion, in heavenly truths attired, 
needs only to be seen to be admired." And 
tell me who ever expressed admiration for 
creeds save those who were gagged with 
them? 

25. Ignorance and egotism are the 
Promoters of all creed, for, in order to write 
a creed that shall be made a test of fitness 
for admission into a church, one must as- 
sume that he is the wisest ot all mankind; 
and I can hardly see how he can believe 
otherwise than that he is wiser than his 
creator. 



CHURCH UNION. 53 

My friends in conclusion let me ask 
yen a few questions: 

i. Do you believe that your creed is 
in every respect correct? 

2 Do you believe no other creed is 
right except your own? 

3. Would you rather obey the com- 
mands of the Bible as you understand them 
or as ethers understand them? 

4. Would you prefer that others should 
obey the commands of the Bible according 
to your understanding or according to 
their own? 

5. Do you believe that all now in your 
church are Christians? 

6. Do you believe all in other denom- 
inations are sinners? 

7. Did you join your church, and are 
you kept in it, because you love its creed? 
or were you brought into the church through 
other influences and kept there largely 
through prejudice? 

8. Do you believe that more sinners 
would be converted, more souls would be 



54 LECTURES. 

saved if Christians were united? 

9. Do you think your church was the 
one Christ came to found and the one for 
the unity of which he prayed when on 
earth? 

10. Do you not believe that it is a du- 
ty that you owe your associates, that you 
owe your children, that you owe your 
church; a duty that you owe to sinners, to 
Christianity, to the world, a duty that you 
owe to your God and your conscience, to 
renounce all creed not found in the Bible, 
all sectarianism, all denominationalism, all 
anti-Bibleism, and to join hands with those 
who are pleading for Bible Christianity, for 
apostolic Christianity, for CHRISTIAN 
Christianity? 

May God help and direct us in the 
consideration of this question. 



HEAVEN. 

The objects of this lecture and of those 
which may follow it at intervals during the 
year are two; first, the exposition of (and a 
partial reply to) Ingersolism, or modern in- 
fidelity; and second, the union of all Christ- 
fans under one banner, and that banner 
Christian character; and upon one platform, 
and that platform the Bible. I would that 
I had power to drive infidelity from the face 
of the earth, even as the morning sun 
sweeps darkness from his path; I would I 
had the power to remove from among God's 
children all sectarianism, creed and selfish- 
ness, fven as the burning rays of the tropic 
Sun would expel the cold from the icy re- 
pions of the North, cculd those regions be 
but brought under its influence; and the 
rich and abundant vegetation that would 



56 LECTURES. 

spring up from the now frozen Canada 
would not compare with the harvest that 
would be gathered from the fertile fields of 
Christianity, which, now chilled by the 
northern blasts of selfishness and the biting 
frosts of denominationalism, produce only 
a scanty crop of tough, shriveled, frost-bit- 
ten onions and parsnips, and a few pale, 
sickly looking flowers, with here and there 
a giant oak or pine, whose powerful consti- 
tution scorns the attempts of both the frosts 
and the northern blasts to hold him in 
their grasp, and stands towering above the 
pigmy vegetation at his feet with his mighty 
arms pointing toward the heavens. 

I consider sectarianism and infidelity 
the two greatest hindrances — I might al- 
most say the two greatest curses — of 
Christianity. And if I were to choose the 
greater hindrance of the two, I should say 
the first. But I purpose making this the 
subject of a special lecture in the near fu- 
ture, and so will drop it for the present. \_Se& 
Leoium on Church Union.'] 



HEAVEN. 57 

Both these enemies of Christianity 
are protected from invasion by the adaman- 
tine walls of prejudice — the most powerful 
and stubborn fortifications that ever the 
combined artillery of oratory and intellect 
were directed against. If once the mighty 
walls of prejudice were broken down it 
would require but a small force to lead forth 
from the citadel the imprisoned soul of man. 

Do you ask me why I use"Ingersolism" 
as a synonymn for infidelity? I do it 
because Robert G. Ingersol is recognized 
today throughout the world as the great 
champion of infidelity; and in my exposition 
of infidelity I propose to hold up before 
you the real and accepted leader of that 
body, and not do as Ingersol has invariably 
done in all his attacks on Christianity; 
namely, hold up before you characters as 
Christians that no child of God of today 
accepts as a Christian. 

Robert Ingersol,taken on the whole, is 
far above the class which he represents. I 
have at present no knowledge that leads me 



58 LECTURES. 

to believe otherwise than that he is a kind 
and tender husband, a loving - devoted fa-, 
ther, and honest in all his financial dealings; 
and in these respects he is certainly 
a worthy example, — but are not these 
all necessary attributes of the Christain? 
Colonel Ingersol is, I believe, the greatest 
humorous wit, — or rather, the greatest joker 
— oi his age; but he is not a logician — he 
can't reason. He says he wants people to 
think, and with the very next breath or 
the last half of the same one, he makes you 
laugh until you can't think. 

Prof. Swing has justly said of him, 
that he is a lawyer, and not a philosopher. 
As a lawyer he is narrow in his views, never 
seeing more than one side of a question at 
a time. As a lawyer, too, when he fails to 
find proof for his argument he makes it 
Keep these two statements in mind, for I 
propose proving both of them beyond a 
doubt before I close this series of lectures. 

Ingersol has never yet converted a sin- 
gle scholar and reasoner; but he is shutting 



heaven. 59 

Out from heaven hundreds of ignorant or 
unthinking persons, who are mistaking his 
wit f jr logic and his narrowness for knowl- 
edge. 

I trust this prelude is sufficient that 
you may understand clearly the position I 
propose to maintain during this series of 
lectures. 

The subject of heaven affords oppor- 
tunity for an abundant play of the imagina- 
tion. Every one's desires or passions form 
a coloring to the field-glass of imagination 
through which he views his ideal heaven. 

The child at play looking through a 
piece of green glass at an object says it is 
green; another looking at the same object 
through a piece of blue glass thinks it is 
blue. And so the Indian viewing heaven 
through his telescope, called the imagina- 
tion, beholds a grand hunting-ground, 
game in abundance, the swiftest of horses, 
the best of dogs and truest of bows and 
quivers. His cultivated and unquenchable 
desire for hunting - eives a corresponding 



60 LECTURES 

color to the glass. In pursuance of this 
faith when the warrior dies his b^st weap- 
ons are buried with him for use la the fu- 
ture world. 

And so the ancient German war- 
rior, beholding heaven through his "field- 
glass colored with a burning passion for 
battle, saw a land of blood, and mighty 
armies surging to and fro in deadly conflict; 
and when the German warrior died, he was 
buried in his armor and fully equipped for 
battle; and his best and truest war-horse, all 
harnessed and ready- for confict, was led up 
beside the yawning sepulcher, an arrow 
pierced his heart, and he fell into the grave 
with his master. 

Another class of religionists, desire- 
ing to excel in physical accomplishments, 
saw through their imaginations, colored 
with this passion, a heaven into which eve- 
ry one enters in exactly the same physical 
condition that he leaves this world. And in 
pursuance of this faith no one of their sect 
is allowed to live until he is old; but on 



HEAVEN. 6 1 

the contrary, as soon as one has started 
down the decline of life physically he march- 
es to his grave, and is there strangled to 
death, or smothered to death, or killed in 
some other way, or buried alive. And it is 
said that the funeral procession on such oc- 
casions is generally a joyful company. 

One of our travelers gives us an ac- 
count of such a scene in the arctic regions 
of Asia. He says one morning he noticed a 
company of men, women and children walk- 
ing along the street. They appeared to 
have some point of destination in view. 
They were chatting pleasantly, and he de- 
cided to join them. Placing himself beside 
a young man of that company, whose ac- 
quain*tan ce he had previously formed, he 
engaged him in conversation. After walk- 
ing some little distance, he found occasion 
to ask the object of this procession; and, to 
his surprise, was informed that it was a 
funeral procession. "What", said he to the 
young man, "you don't mean a funeral pro- 
cession?" "I do", replied the young man in 



62 LECTURES. 

his own tongue. "Why" ,replied our travel- 
er, "I see neither corpse nor mourners/' 
The young man, pointing out a woman a 
little past the middle age walking a little in 
advance of the rest of the company, replied, 
"We are going out to bury her." "Who is 
she?" "She is my mother, sir/' answered 
the young man; and then, in answer to a 
number of other questions, he told the trav- 
eler that she was at an age that every year 
added to her life would diminish her vitali- 
ty, and they were going to strangle her to 
death and bury her that she might enjoy 
forever in heaven her present physical con- 
dition. 

The Jews with their selfish ideas of hu- 
manity divided into ranks or castes believ- 
ed and taught that there were seven heav- 
ens; and Mohammed, no doubt, got his 
idea of seven heavens from them. 

In all this variety of opinions as re- 
gards heaven, it appears that all, without ex- 
ception, have agreed in two, and only two, 
particulars; namely, first, Heaven is a place 



HEAVEN. 6 



J 



or state of perfect happiness; and second, 
it jeeupies a place in space somewhere a- 
bove us. 

The questions that naturally arise are; 
How many heavens are there? Where are 
they? Are heaven and paradise the same? 
What is the real condition of heaven? 

i. How many heavens are there f I 
believe there are three heavens mentioned 
in the Bible. (i)The firmament, or atmos- 
phere. Proof: "And God made the firma- 
ment, and divided the waters which were 
under the firmament from the waters 
which were above the firmament. And 
God called the firmament heaven. (2) The 
starry heaven, or the firmament of the 
heaven. Proof: And God set them [the 
sun and moon and stars] in the firmament 
of the heaven. (3) The future home of 
the blessed, the abode of holy angles, the » 
throne of God; and it is in this heaven that 
we are all, infidel and Christian, believer and 
unbeliever, interested. 

2. Where are these heavens? The 



64 LECTURES. 

first heaven, or atmosphere, is directly a- 
bove the earth. The second heaven, or 
starry heaven, is still above that. And as 
to the third heaven, the Bible, if it does not 
set forth the ancient idea that it is some- 
where above us, at any rate does not dis- 
pute it. For we find many such expres- 
sions as the following in the Bible: "Is not 
God in the height of heaven?;" The Lord 
looked down from heaven;" "And, lo, the 
heavens were opened unto him, and he saw 
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, 
and lighting upon him." 

3. Are heaven and paradise the same? 
The word paradise has been used in two 
senses; first, to apply to the Garden of E- 
den, and second, to represent a place or con- 
dition of happiness. Theologians differ in 
oppinion as to whether the paradise of hap- 
piness and the heaven of happiness are the 
same. Paradise is mentioned but three 
times in the Bible, but I find no reason for 
believing- otherwise than that it is identical 
with heaven. "Today shalt thou be with 



HEAVEN. 65 

me :n paradise." "To him that overcometh 
will 1 orive to eat of the tree of life which is 
in the midst of the paradise of God." Paul 
in his second letter to the Corinthians writes; 
"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen 
years ago (whether in the body, 1 cannot 
tell; or whether out if the body, I cannot tell: 
God knoweth) such an one caught up to 
the third heaven. And I knew such a man 
(whether in the body, or out of the body; I 
cannot tell: God knoweth) how that he was 
caught up into paradise and heard unspeak- 
able words, which it is not lawful for a man 
to utter." It seems to me that Paul here 
uses heaven and paradise in the same sense. 
4, This brings us to the last and most 
important question; What is the real condi- 
tion of heaven? Heaven means a place or 
condition of eternal, supreme, unbounded, 
unspeakable joy or happiness. And such is 
the heaven of the Christian; for, "as it is 
written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things that God hath prepared for 



66 LECTURES. 

them that love him." (I. Cor. 2: 9.) And 
again it is written, "In thy presence is full- 
ness of joy; At thy right hand are pleasures 
for evermore." (Ps. 16: 1 r.) 

What is the infidel's idea of heaven? 
Mr. Ingersol answers, "My home is my 
heaven; my fireside is my paradise." Is that 
heaven? Eternal happiness? Supreme, un- 
bounded, unspeakable joy? No thoughts 
but the purest thoughts? No motives but 
the noblest motives?— I beholda vision. Let 
me picture it to you. I see a beautiful, com- 
fortable, happy home. I see a young wife 
and husband. I see a sweet babe sitting in 
its mother's lap holding out its little dimpled 
hands for a snow-white kitten its father is 
holding out toward it. I hear the baby 
crowing and cooing. I hear its sweet merry 
laugh. As the fond parents' eyes raise from 
the pretty sight and peer into each other's, 
I read love in the look. I read love and 
happiness in the merry laugh of the parents 
as baby seizes Tabby with both hands and 
tries with all her little might to get Tabby 



HEAVEN. 67 

within reach of her wide-open mouth. I 
read love in the father's countenance as he 
takes the baby up in his arms and hugs and 
kisses her, and then goes jumping round the 
room with the baby on his shoulder just to 
hear the infant's merry laugh. I read love 
in the mother's smile as she holds out her 
arms for the baby, and it extends its little 
dimpled hands in token that it has had 
romping enough for the present. And In- 
gersol says this is heaven; and what lacks 
it? 

The vision has faded, and another is 
before me. The same room. I notice no 
change except a little cradle before the fire 
and a number of bottles sitting on the table. 
In the cradle lies a little thin pale form; and 
from its slightly parted lips comes a weak, 
painful moaning, that I can hardly bear to 
hear. On one side of the cradle I see the 
pale anxious face of the mother, her deep 
tender eyes fixed on the little suffering 
face. On the other side sits the father hold- 
ing a little thin bonv blue-veined hand in 



68 LECTURES. 

his. What an awful anxiety I read in his 
face as ha watches the irregular breathing 
of his darling-. I read in the face of the 
doctor standing by his side a look of de- 
spair. 

The scene changes again. The cradle is 
gone. The bottles are removed. I see sit- 
ting on a chair near where the cradle stood 
a little coffin. And on the table I see a little 
cold lifeless form, covered with a white lin- 
en. I see a lady step forward to lift the 
little lifeless form into the coffin; but no, 
the mother interferes and asks that she 
may move it herself. 1 see the mother lift 
the little white form tenderly in her arms, 
and as tenderly place it in the coffin; and 
then as her eyes fall on the little white face, 
I hear her utter a scream as if her heart 
strings were being torn asunder, and I see 
her sink back into a chair. I see the fath- 
er walk up to the side of the little coffin. 
I see him bend over the little lifeless form. 
I see him imprint a kiss on that little white 
cold cheek. I see his whole form tremble 



HEAVEN. 69 

as he turns and sinks on his knees beside 
his wife. As bis head sinks upon her knees, 
I hear a groan of unspeakable anguish 
thrill his bosom. 

As I turn from the sad scene.I ask you, 
Robert Ingersol, if you can paint a purer 
earthly scene? I ask you if earth has ever 
afforded a lovelier more sacred view. And 
I want Ingersol to answer these questions 
before the whole world. And I want every 
infidel and every .Christian to hear his an- 
swers. Colonel Ingersol, is this your heav- 
en? Supreme, unbounded, unspeakable joy 
as you look upon that little face for the last 
time with no hope of ever seeing her again? 
And is this home your heaven as you return 
to it from the cemetary, the mocking thud 
of the frozen clods still echoing in your ears? 
And is this fireside your paradise, the little 
cradle gone, that sweet merry laugh no 
more to ring in your ears, those little dim- 
pled hands no more to plead with you for 
a romp, the little chair no more at its place; 
alas, the happy smile and joyous laugh of 



7© HEAVEN. 

your wife lie buried . in the cold ground 
with her babe. Robert Ingersol, as you 
watch that slow sad step, as you look into 
the sad mournful eyes of your wile, as you 
see her wipe a tear from her eye as she care- 
fully lays away those little dresses, those lit- 
tle stockings and shoes, those little toys 
that her baby used to love, and when the 
baby's little snow-white kitten comes and 
climbs up in the box with the baby's things, 
and she cannot find heart to remove it, but 
turns sobbing away, let me hear you repeat 
with the same emphasis as before; "My 
home is my heaven; my fireside is my par- 
ad ise.". And is this the Infidel's paradise? 
In your sleep you dream that you are hold- 
ing your babe in your arms again; you feel 
its little soft hands on your face; you hear 
the loved prattle and the sweet laugh; and 
you are just bending over to kiss the little 
dimpled cheek when you awake to find that 
your babe is gone forever. Except in your 
dreams you will never hold her in your arms 
again; you will never again feel that soft 



LECTURES. 71 

brnd on your face; you will never again 
hear your baby trying to talk to you nor 
that sweet merry laugh; — never — never — 
never — and is this eternal happiness? 

So ends the infidels' heaven. So ends 
my visions of an infidel home. My friends, 
in this picture I have given infidelity every 
advantage. I have pictured the purest 
scene that ever infidel eyes have beheld. I 
have pictured the noblest, purest infidels 
that ever God has created. Mr. Ingersol, 
in all his arguments against Christianity, 
has never in a single instance pictured a 
true Christian. On every occasion, when 
with his hand of oratory he has thrown 
back the curtain with the announcement 
that we are to view a Christian, he has 
pointed us to a hypocrite, an infidel. Ev- 
ery hypocrite is an infidel. 

Now let me give you Ingersol's repre- 
sentation of the Christian's heaven, or rath- 
er of the being who is qualified to enter 
this heaven. He says, "When the man is 
called up by the recording secretary, or 



72 LECTURES. 

whoever does the cross-examining, he says 
to his soul, "where are you from?" — "I'm from 
the world, sir." — "Do you belong to any 
church?" — "Yes, sir;andto the Young Men's 
Christian Association/' — "What is your 
business?" — "Cashier in a bank." — "Did you 
ever run off with any money?" — "I don't like 
to tell, sir." — "Well, you have to." — "Yes, sir; 
I did?" — "What kind of a bank did you have?" 
— "A savings bank/' — "How much did you 
run off with?" — "One hundred thousand dol- 
lars." — "Did you take any thing else along 
with you?" — "Yes, sir." — What?" — "I took my 
neighbor's wife." — "Did you have a wife and 
children of your own?" — "Yes, sir." — "And 
you deserted them?" — "Oh, yes; but such 
was my confidence in God that I believed 
he would take care of them." — "Have you 
heard of them since?" — "No, sir." — "Did you 
believe that rib story?" - — "Ah, bless my soul, 
yes! I believed all of it, sir; I often used to 
be sorry that there were not harder stories 
in the Bible, so that I could show what my 
faith could do/'— "You believed it, did you?" 



HEAVEN. 73 

Yes, with all my heart." — "Give him a harp.'' 
Now that is right funny, isn't it? I can 
imagine I hear a great crowd of infidels 
and other light thinkers laughing and 
shouting and cheering and hurrahing when 
Ingersol tells that. Laughing is a very 
healthful exercise; but, my friends, it has 
never yet saved the soul of a single man; it 
has never yet built a poor-house; it has nev- 
er yet fed an orphan or a widow; it is some- 
thing which, in the hour of death (the most 
earnest and thoughtful period in the life of 
man) is required, if at all, in microscopic 
doses. 

Now, let us analyze this; and every in- 
fidel who attempts to analyze it should have 
his laugh out before he begins the analysis; 
for, like the rock that the little boy kicked 
because he stumped his toe against it, it will 
kick back harder than it was kicked, 

"Whoever does the cross-examining," 
Mr. Ingersol begins. He seems to think 
that heaven keeps a supply of lawyers to 
examine applicants for admission. Now I 



74 LECTURES. 

do not know how many lawyers there are 
in heaven. But you have all probably heard 
and remember that old story about the I- 
rishman who dreamed that he had died and 
gone to heaven. And he was telling his 
dream at the hotel to a company of lawyers; 
and he told them that he dreamed last night 
that he died and was given a deed to a 
mansion in heaven, and when he got there 
and located the mansion he found some one 
else occupying it and he could not get pos- 
session, and he was in a fearful dilemma, 
and he was worrying and sweating, and 
he was glad when he waked up and found 
it was not true. "Why didn't you employ 
an attorney and bring suit?" asked one of 
the most dignified of the lawyers, who al- 
ways prided himself on his wit. "Faith," 
answered the Irishman "and I did look all 
over heaven for a lawyer, and I couldn't 
find one." 

Now we will proceed to analyze Inger- 
sol's discription of the Christian; and since 
fun is Ingersol's principal and almost only 



HEAVEN. 75 

forte will try to find the true secret oi it. 

"Where are you from?" — -"I'm from the 
world." That's all right. That means eith- 
er Christian or infidel. And there's nothing 
funny about that. "Do you belong to any 
church?" — "Yes sir; and to the Young Men's 
Christian Association." That's all right. 
That means either Christian or infidel, for 
we have them both in each of these organi- 
zations. And there's nothing funny about 
that. "What is your business?" — "Cashier 
in a bank." That's all right. That means 
either Christian or infidel. And there's 
nothing funny about that. "Did you ever run 
off with any money?" — "I don't like to tell, 
sir."— "Well you have to."— "Yes, sir; I did." 
— 'What kind of a bank did you have?" — 
"A savings bank." — "How much did you run 
off with 5 " — "One hundred thousand dollars." 
That's true history, for there have been 
many just such occurences. That'sthe infi- 
del, for no Christian ever ran off with money, 
or any other property, belonging to anoth- 
er. And that's funnv. That's the first fun- 



J 6 LECTURES. 

ny point. My friends, do you know that 
last year when banks were failing and cash- 
iers absconding all over the United States 
fully two thirds of th">se cashiers that were 
running off with the banks' money were 
professed infidels (I think Ihave not exag- 
erated), and among the other third not a 
single Christian could be found? And I 
believe that rule will hold good eV er since 
the first bank in our nation or in the world 
was robbed by its cashier. Please bear in 
mind that Christian means an executor of 
the precepts and example of Christ; just as 
Ingersolite means one Avho believes in the 
doctrine and example of Ingersol, and is 
g'overned accordingly. But let us proceed 
with our analysis. "Did you take any thing 
else along with you? ' — "Yes, sir." — That's all 
right. That means either Christian or infidel' 
for when one is moving from one place to 
another, bt he Christian or infidel, he gen- 
erally takes something besides money with 
him. "What?" — "I took my neiorbor's wife." 
That's true history. There have been hun- 



HEAVEN. J? 

dre Is of such instances in the history of the 
woi d. 'That's the infidel again, for never 
has a real Christian run off with another 
man's wife: That's funny. That's the sec- 
ond funny point. "Did you have a wife and 
children of your own?" — "Yes, sir." That's 
all right. Both Christians and infidels have 
families. And there's nothing funny about 
that. "And you deserted them?" — "Oh, yes; 
but such was my confidence in God that I 
believed he would take care of them." 
That's the hypocrite. A hypocrite is the 
worst type of infidel. So that's the infidel 
again. And that's funny. That's the third 
funny point. "Did you believe that rib 
story?" — -"Ah, bless my soul, yes. I believed 
all of it, sir; I used to be sorry there were 
not harder stories in the Bible, so that I 
could show what my faith could do.'' — "You 
believed it, did you?" — "Yes, with all my 
heart/" — "Give him a harp." That sounds 
right funny, too. But what else is there in it? 
Where does Ingersol get his authority for 
making this a test of fitness for heaven? 



J% LECTURES. 

Does he get his authority from the Bible? 
Did Christ or the apostles ever hint at such 
a requirement? When the -keeper of the 
prison rushed in before the Apostle Paul 
and .Silas saying, "Sirs, what must I do to 
be saved," did they answer, Believe with 
all your heart that Eve was created from 
a rib taken from the side of Adam? No; 
they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." What 
answer did Christ give when the ruler came 
to him with the question; "What shall I do 
that I may inherit eternal life r ' — "And Je- 
sus said unto him, Keep the command- 
ments/' — "Which?" asked the ruler. "Jesus 
said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt 
not commit audultery" — "Why certainly," 
says Ingersol, "but what has that to do with 
a man's running off with another man's 
wife" — "Thou shalt not steal" — "That's true," 
chimes in Ingersol, "but he can run off with 
the money of a savings bank." — "Thou shalt 
not bear false witness" — (Mr. Ingersol, that 
means thou shalt not tell falsehoods just to 



HEAVEN. 79 

male** people lau^h), — "Honor thy father and 
thy mother, and Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself. And if thou wilt be perfect, 
go and sell that thou hast, and give to the 
poor." — "How plain," says Ingersol, "that 
means get to be cashier in a savings bank 
where the poor deposit their savings, and 
then run off with the money. Keep these 
commandments, if you can conveniently; but 
at any rate keep this one and thou shalt be 
saved; 'Believe that Eve was created from 
a rib of Adam.'" How rediculous! What 
a coming down from the noble, pure, divine 
commandments that just preceded it. That 
is coming down from the grand, the sub- 
lime, the divine, to the little, the rediculous. 
That is coming down from the logic of 
heaven to the idiocy of earth. That is com- 
ing down from Christ to Ingersol. Such a 
commandment was never written in the 
Bible, was never given by Christ or the a- 
postles, was never mentioned by Christ's 
disciples,' was never written among the laws 
of Moses. You may believe the story of 



8o LECTURES, 

the creation of Eve or not believe it. It 
has nothing to do with your being a Chris- 
tian. 

Do you notice that in his representa- 
tion of the Christian, every joke or criticism 
Ingersol has given has been on the infidel, 
not one on, the Christian? I wonder if it ever 
occured to Ingersol that he and his whole 
audiences were laughing at their own imag- 
es reflected from the mirror of oratory 
which he holds up before them. Whether 
he has noticed it or not it is a fact. And 
this observation causes another picture to 
come before my mind. I see sitting on the 
side-walk, whittling, one of those shabbily 
dressed, big mouthed, brainless, know-it-all 
sort of beings that grace, or disgrace, every 
town or city of any considerable size; one 
of those fellows whose skin has the appear- 
ance of supporting the deposits of geologic 
ages; one of those disgusting human beings 
whose highest ambition is to be associated 
with the stylish, and whose poverty ( and 
that alone ) keeps him down; and who 



HEAVEN. 8 I 

spends his time drinking as long as some 
one will treat, and the remainder of the 
time making fun of every-body and every? 
thing he sees, and wishing he had a fortune; 
and the only change from this monotony is 
a change of the half plug of tobacco in his 
mouth for a fresh one. I see one of these 
fellows suddenly become the possessor of 
a fortune through the death of a rich rela- 
tive, and his highest hope is realized. I see 
him invest a considerable sum in clothing, 
and he is immediately transformed into a 
dude. Scene ii. Our dude has secured 
lodgings at the most fashionable hotel in 
the city. He is just stepping into the par- 
lor alone and for the first time, and glanc- 
ing at the large mirror which covers nearly 
the whole of one side of the room he mis- 
takes it for a glass partition and his own 
image for some one in the adjoining room, 
and being amused at his own ludicrous ap- 
pearance, he cannot resist the temptation 
of falling back on his old habit of making 
fun whenever occassion affords, and he 



82 LECTURES. 

bursts into a laugh; and seeing the other 
do the same he is convulsed with laugh- 
ter the more; and he says to himself, 
"That's the biggest fool I ever saw! — ha, ha, 
ha — andhaint he a beauty! — ha, ha, ha — his 
nose is as red as a beet and as big as two! 
— ha, ha, ha — and look at that mouth! it 
looks like Mammoth Cave! — ha, ha, ha — 
and them pants fit like a wagon-sheet on a 
broom-stick! — ha, ha, ha — and just see the 
fool laugh! — ha, ha, ha!" and rushing back to 
the office and pushing the door open he ex- 
claims, "Come in here, fellows, quick; and 
I'll show you the biggest fool in the world/' 
And they all rush after him, and when 
they reach the parlor, there stands the 
biggest fool in the world pointing at his 
own image and laughing as if he would 
burst his sides. And they all take in the 
situation in a moment and fall to laughing, 
and some sink down in chairs or on sofas, 
and some roll on the floor; and finally one 
manages to compose himself enough to tell 
the fellow that is a mirror, and he is laugh- 



HEAVEN. 83 

ing £t his own image. The fellow looks 
puzzled for a moment, and then replies, 
rather gloomily; "Well, I don't care; I had 
just as much fun as if it had been some oth- 
er fool/' And if someone should tell In- 
gersol that he is laughing at his own image, 
I about half-way believe he would answer in 
his heart — not with his tongue — but I 
can hardly hardly help believing that his 
real heart-felt answer would be, "Well, I 
don't care; I am paid for it; and a man can 
afford to act a fool for twenty-five thousand 
dollars a year. A great many act the fool 
for less/' 

But, says some one, do you believe that 
rib story? Well, yes; I am rather inclined to 
believe it. How can you'* Ingersol says, "I 
can't believe it because I can't comprehend 
it." That is not the only thing he can't com- 
prehend. There are two senses in which I 
can believe this story. First, in a literal 
sense. I believe the first woman was in some 
manner created. (Ask Ingersol if he be- 
lieves that, and he will answer, "I don't know" 



84 LECTURES. 

in fact, that is Ingersol's position on allques- 
tions that require thought or reason.) I do 
not know how the first woman was created; 
and since this theory is set forth in the Bi- 
ble, and I know no other, I can hardly help 
believing it. "O", says Ingersol, "the very 
idea of creating woman out of the rib of a 
man." I'd like to know where you would 
get better material? Well, how was the 
first woman made then? No doubt Inger- 
sol knows just how it was done. I wonder 
what Ingersol would charge for a receipt 
for making the first woman? Don't you see 
Ingersol is tampering with a subject he 
knows absolutely nothing about? There 
are a great many things that are true be- 
yond a doubt that the wisest cannot under- 
stand, and a great many more that Ingersol 
cannot understand. I wonder if Ingersol 
thinks he has a mind? I suppose he does, 
for every one that thinks at all thinks that, 
and the bigger the fool the bigger he thinks 
his mind. I suppose Ingersol knows just 
how his mind was created and just what 



HEAVEN. 85 

material was used. lie doesn't believe that 
grass grows, for no man living can compre- 
hend the process. He doesn't believe that 
there is such a thing as day and night. 
He doesn't believe he can bend his finger. 
But I will tell you something that he does 
believe that he can't comprehend. He be- 
lieves a bullet sent through a man s heart 
w ill produce death. If he hadn't he would- 
n't have surrendered in a hog-pen to a six- 
teen-year old boy during our late Civil 
War. He would have hunted for a more 
dignified place to surrender. Another thing 
he believes that I think he is hardly able to 
comprehend is that the Presbyterians of 
111. defeated his gubernatorial aspirations. 
Why? A friend once visiting Ingersoland 
noticing a beautifully bound volume of 
Tom Paine's works lying on his table, said; 
"Mr. Ingersol, what did that work cost 
you?" Ingersol answered, "I think it cost 
me the governorship of 111." 

But I said there was another sense in 
which I could believe the story of the crea- 



86 LECTURES. 

tion of Eve. That is the figurative sense. 
And a great many theologians think it 
should be understood in this sense, and 
that there is a lesson to be learned from it. 
Mathew Henry remarks, "that woman was 
taken out of man, not out of his head to top 
him, nor out of his feet to be trampled un- 
der foot; but out of his side to be equal to 
to him, tinder. his arm to be protected, and 
near his heart to be beloved." 

I have pictured to you the infidel's 
heaven. The last scene was the cold white 
lifeless form, the coif in and the grave. But, 
my friends, the hope of a C hristian gives a 
silver lining to the cloud of sorrow that set- 
tles over the household as the eyes of a 
loved one close in death. And O what a 
blessed hope it is. I see an old man stand 
by the death-bed of his aged wife and hold 
her wrinkled hand in his as she sets her 
foot in the dark rolling waters of the river 
of death; and I see her put her arm around 
his neck and look up into his face as she 
says, "Good-bye, pa, you'll be there soon/ 



HEAVEN. 87 

And the old man's eyes, dimmed with age, 
gaze off into space, and his spiritual sight 
is clearer than ever before, and he says as 
a tear trickles down his cheek, "There will 
be no parting there." 

I read a letter written by a boy off in 
the army during the war; and he writes, 
"Dear mother, — I am wounded. The doc- 
tor says I cannot get well. I will never a- 
gain see our dear old home. Teach my ba- 
by brother when he grows up to love the 
Union his brother died for. Mother, I will 
never again see any of you on earth; but 
we will meet in heaven." How those last 
words take the edge off the sharp sword of 
grief. 

I see a mother sitting beside the death- 
bed of a young man, a Christian. He is 
rolling on the bed of affliction. Sharp pains 
are racking his body. His head is throbbing. 
As his suffering relaxes, I see him turn 
toward his mother and look up into those 
deep sorrowful, loving eyes; and I hear her 
say to him as she lays her cool hand en his 



88 LECTURES. 

fevered brow, "There will be no more pain, 
nor sickness, nor death there/' And he asks 
her to read to him from the Bible, and she 
opens the book and reads; "Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord from hence- 
forth." And then she turns a little farther 
over and reads; "And God shall wipe all 
tears from their eyes; there shall be no more 
death; neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain: for the former 
things are passed away." And then she 
sings; "There'll be no more sorrowing there; 
In heaven above, where all is love, There'll 
be no more sorrowing there." And when 
she has finished, the young man looks up in- 
to the mother's face, and says; "Mother, I'm 
dying. All is light. I see my way clearly. 
We'll meet again. Good-bye." So ends 
the Christian's earthly life. My friends, 
how does the Christian's earthly life com- 
pare with the infidel's heaven? Even were 
there nothing beyond the grave, would you 
not rather live and die a Christian, than an 
infidel? 



HEAVEN. 89 

But there is something beyond the 
grave. The undying longing born in the 
soul of man, that "longing after immortality," 
proves that there is something beyond the 
grave; 

For ne'er to man by God was given 
A soul without desire for heaven. 
The lives and examples and works of Christ 
and the apostles and the prophets of old 
prove there is something beyond the grave. 
as the scenes of earth close and the scenes 
of eternity dawn on their visions, the dying 
words of the Greatest minds that have ever 

o 

lived prove there is something beyond the 

grave. The dying words of David Daily 

were; "I feel well; I never felt more so in 

my life." Toplady, the author of "Rock of 

Acres," said as she died; "After p-lories that 

God has manifested to my soul, all is light, 

light, lio-ht — the brightness of his own 

glory/' Darrocott; "Blessed be God, all is 

well." Thomas Scott; "I have done with 

darkness forever." John Bunyan; "We 

shall meet ere long- to sing - the new song- 



90 LECTURES. 

and remain happy forever in a world with- 
out end." Abbott; "Glory to God, I see 
heaven open before me/' Dr. Eddy; "Breth- 
ren, sing and pray; eternity dawns/' 

1 consider the words of a dying man 
proof of heaven for two reasons; first, when 
one is dying he is in the deepest earnest, 
there is no hypocracy then; and second, 
as the scenes oj earth fade from the sensual 
vision, I believe the spiritual sense is open- 
ed to the scenes of eternity, and so he de- 
scribes what he really sees. 

To the infidel death is a black curtain. 
To the Christian it is a valley, a shadow, 
beyond which and through which he beholds 
in the dim distance a land ofpurity, of beauty 
that is beyond his power of discription. We 
sse ths pearly sands and the crystal waters 
washing its shores. And we see the forms 
of loved ones there. Some of us see the 
whit-robed forms of mothers walking on the 
shores; some the forms of fathers, or broth- 
ers, or sisters, some the forms of compan- 
ions; and some of us see the forms of 



HEAVEN. 9 1 

little babes playing in the pearly sands. 
What a beautiful scene! But, "Now we see 
through a glass, darkly; but then face to 
face." O yes, I think you'll meet your fa- 
ther face to face; I think your mother will 
clasp you in her arms; I think your wife 
will know you, and will hold out her white 
arms when she sees you coming to enfold 
you; I think your brothers and sisters will 
run to meet you; I think you will run to 
that sweet babe playing on the shore and 
catch is up in your arms. When the apos- 
tle said, "Then we shall see face to face", I 
think he meant we shall know each other 
there. And I think when we have "joined 
glad hands with the blood-washed throng," 
the happy company will walk back from 
the shore hand in hand, and we will "eat of 
the tree of life which is in the midst of the 
paradise of God;" and we shall behold that 
King, the Ruler that holds in his hands the 
reins of the government of the infinite uni- 
verse; and on his right hand the Son of 
Man, the Son of God, the Savior of the 



92 LECTURES. 

world, our crucified Redeemer, and the co- 
lors that flash around the throne shall be 
like the appearance of a rainbow round a- 
bout the throne, in sight like unto an emer- 
ald. And all will be peace and joy and hap- 
piness and harmony, and there shall be no 
more sorrowing or pain or parting or death 
there, for "the former things are passed a- 
way," for "we shall be changed in a moment, 
in the twinkling of an eye;" and "God shall 
wipe all tears from our eyes." Yes, before 
we set our feet on the glittering shores of 
sweet eternity, the sensations of sorrow and 
sadness and grief and pain will he taken 
from us. And it seems to me I should 
want to join my voice with that of the four 
creatures that are standing round the throne 
and saying day and night, "Holy, holy, holy, 
Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and 
is to come." And then when the four and 
twenty elders fall down before the throne, 
it seems to me I should want to fall down 
before the throne too, and join with them in 
saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive 



HEAVEN. 



93 



glory and honor and power, for thou hast 
created all things, and for thy pleasure they 
are and were created.'' 



HELL. 

Either the mind is endued with a be- 
lief in a future existence, or else by some 
mysterious and unknown power the mind 
of man is led along the path that leads to 
it. The ideas of heaven and hell are as old 
as the human race. And this is a strong 
and, I think, unanswerable proof that they 
do really exist. You say our ideas of 
heaven and of hell were given by revelation; 
true, but our fore-parents believed in them 
both before they had received the revela- 
tion; and then other nations that have not, 
so far as we know, received a revelation 
have their ideas of a future state of exis- 
tence. Every nation, sect, clan, or religion of 
any importance has had its idea of hell. 
The old Greek and Roman mythological 
hell was called Hades, and was located be- 



HELL. 95 

math the earth, or at least beneath its sur- 
face. It was ruled by the god Pluto. 

This is the first of three hells that I wish 
to conduct you into and partly through to- 
night, and the first of four that I wish to 
mention. Come on all who are ready. It 
seems to be getting darker; we are ap- 
proaching the mouth of hades — bow-wow- 
wow — hello there! Begone! Get out! — 
That's old Cerberus, the great three-headed 
dog placed at this entrance to prevent the 
escape of any soul or the entering of any 
one in the body. Feel the ground tremble 
as his horrible growl reverberates through 
the hollow deep of hades. See the sharp 
teeth and the three ugly heads glisten. See 
his piercing eyes flash fire. See the power- 
ful muscles of his hungry jaws working in 
his anxiety to get hold of us. I had almost 
forgotten about old Cerberus guarding 
this gate. Must we stop here? What shall 
we do? Shoot him, shouts one. All right, 
shoot him; but the bullet will glance harm- 
lessly off, or pass through him without 



96 LECTURES, 

harming him. Poison him, suggests anoth- 
er. Well, throw him a buscuit if you have 
one ready; but he will refuse to eat it. or if 
he eats it it will not hurt him. - Hold him, 
cries a third. Now that sounds progressive; 
and since you suggested it you may have 
the honor of carrying the suggestion into 
execution. Hercules is the only man that 
ever held him; and Hercules with one wrench 
of his mighty arm was able to tear a great 
gap in a huge mountain chain, and let the 
waters of a sea flow into the ocean. Jump 
past him, says another. Well, you jump 
first; I am still a little nervous. — What 
shall we do? Must we give up our expedi- 
tion and return home? No: 1 will tell you 
what must be done. We must gain the fav- 
or of Jupiter, the greatest of all the gods; 
and to do that we must offer a sacrifice. 
Who will p-ive us five hundred head of cat- 
tie to burn as a sacrifice to Jupiter? Where 
are our stock-men? Good. At the com- 
mand of Jupiter old Cerberus stands sullen- 
ly aside, and we enter Hades. See the shad- 



HELL. 97 

owy forms crowded thick all around us? 
They are the spirits of dead ones waiting 
to be ferried across this deep, dark, swiftly 
flowing river in front of us. The name of 
this river is Acheron, and no one can get 
before the throne of Pluto until he has 
crossed this river. The only way to get 
across is in a little leaky old boat rowed by 
an ugly old man by the name of Charon. 
Now you have to pay your fare across this 
river, and it was on this account that the 
Greeks and the Romans placed a coin un- 
der the tongue of the dead. If a soul come 
here without this coin with which to pay 
ferriage, he is compelled to wait one hun- 
dred years before old Charon will ferry him 
over. There comes the boat now. Now do 
not get in such a hurry. Don't get in until 
Charon bids you, or he will knock you on 
the head with an oar. 

Besides this part of Hades which we 
are in there are two other departments of 
special importance. Off there to our left 
so far back in the dark we cannot see is 



9# LECTURES. 

Tartarus, which we are going to visit pres- 
ently. And off to our right far out of sight 
and hearing of Tartarus are the Elysian 
Fields, the Heaven of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans. This is separated from the remainder 
of the Hades by the river Lethe, the river of 
forgetfulness. Every soul entering the Ely- 
sian Fields must cross this river. In cross- 
ing they are bathed in its waters, which have 
the peculiar quality of making one forget 
all unpleasant things of the past. This is a 
place of perfect and everlasting happiness 
where the sweetest flowers bloom all the 
year, where the air is tainted with the most 
fragrant odors, where the grass and leaves 
never wither, and where the trees are filled 
with birds of most gorgeous and beautiful 
plumage, and the air thrills with their mel- 
ody. Springs of chrystal waters and bab- 
bling brooks flow over sands of gold and 
between mossy banks. And the Elysian 
Fields have a sun and moon of their own. 

But we are not commissioned to visit 
heaven tonight. Our commission is to hell, 



HELL. 99 

and we have no business here. Come on; 
we must get permission of Pluto to visit 
Tartarus. We present ourselves before Plu- 
to, a dark, bl ack-bearded, muscular god, 
with black cruel eyes and tightly closed lips, 
holding a key in one hand and a two-prong- 
ed fork in the other. After much arguing 
we gain permission to visit Tartarus. We 
follow the guide given us by Pluto. That 
river of fire you see surrounding Tartarus 
is called the Phlegethon. We are trans- 
ported across this river of flames, and set 
down in front of the ponderous adamantine 
gate of Tartarus. At the command of our 
guide the door is unlocked, and the massive 
hinges creak; and as the ponderous door 
swings open the hot air tainted with offen- 
sive oders gushes into our faces, and the 
whistle of whips and the curses of devils, 
and the wail and lamentations and the blood- 
curdling screams of the tortured ghost? of 
the wicked cause us to start back awestrick- 
en; but the command of our guide to "come 
on" arouses us to our wits aoain, and we 



IOO LECTURES. 

press into Tartarus after him; and the 
door swings shut, and we hear the bar click 
as it falls into place, and the awful thought 
comes over us, Oh, if we were doomed to 
spend eternity here! Shadowy forms un- 
dergoing every imaginable form of torture 
crouch on every side of us. There stands 
a ghost with his eyes all aflame and burn- 
ing out, and he is howling with the unuter- 
able pain; and then, my friends, to think 
this to continue throughout all eternity! 
We are attracted by the screams of the 
spirit of a murderer. A devil is cutting his 
heart out, just as he did the heart of a fel- 
low being on earth; and as the brutal knife 
severs the delicate tissues, you can see the 
ghost throw his hands into the air and the 
blood gushing forth, and you can see him 
gasp for breath, and he is dying— dying — 
dying — and he must continue so through- 
out all eternity. And we walk on down 
a little further, and we come to a stream of 
pure water, and in the middle of the stream 
in water up to his chin stands old king 



HELL. IOI 

Tantalus; and his face has a hungry crav- 
ing look. See him open his mouth and 
lower his head to drink, and behold the 
water flees from his parched lips. And over 
his head hangs the most luscious and 
tempting clusters of fruit. See him clutch 
at them with both hands, and behold as he 
reaches for them they rise just so the ends 
of his fingers touch them. And old king 
Tantalus must continue with his burning 
thirst and his craving appetite in this posi- 
tion forever. And it is from this old myth 
that we get the word tantalize. You ask 
me who is this king Tantalus? He was 
one of the most brutal of all the mytholog- 
ical kings. Many horrible stories are told 
of him, but one of the most repulsive is that 
upon one occassion he had his son killed, 
cooked and served up on his table in hon- 
or of some very distinguished guests. 

Now I should like to take time to ex- 
plore more of Tartarus, but we have two or 
three other hells to visit yet tonight, and 
we cannot stay longer. That river you see 



T02 LECTURES. 

flowing out of Tartarus is the Cocytus the 
river of salt water composed entirely of the 
tears of criminals condemned to hard labor. 

As we leave this region, bear in mind 
that Hades is a name given to the entire 
region, that Tartarus is the name of the hell 
of torment, that the Elysian Fields compose 
another department of Hades, and a place 
of perfect and eternal happiness, and that 
the first department that the soul enters is 
a place of neither torment nor happiness, 
but only a place that the soul enters or 
passes through in going to its eternal abode. 

Now we are ready to visit Dante's hell. 
Dante was the great Italian poet, and prob- 
ably ranks not lower than third or fourth 
among the great poets of the world. Dante's 
hell is based on the Roman Catholic faith, 
and is peculiarly intermixed with the Greek 
and Roman myths. It is divided into nine 
great circles, and these circles are subdivi- 
ded into smaller circles. We shall not have 
time to visit all of these departments, but 
we will visit a few of them, and I will tell 



HELL. I03 

you as we go something of some of the 
other departments that I have visited be- 
fore. As we enter we read written over the 
door in great black letters; "ALL HOPE 

ABANDON, YE WHO ENTER 
HERE!" 

Now after we enter and cross the Ach- 
eron (this is the same river that old Cha- 
ron ferried us over before) we enter the first 
circle. This is full of ghosts of men, wo- 
men and children and babes. Those in this 
circle have committed no crime, but have 
not been baptized, or in other words have 
not kept the ordinances of God, and so are 
deprived of the privilege of entering heaven. 
They are not tormented further than with 
the thought that they shall spend eternity 
here, and the air is full of sighs. 

In the second circle we hear groans 
and lamentations and wailing, and there is a 
rude blast continually blowing, that drives 
the spirits hither and thither. I wish I had 
the time to picture to you some of the in- 
dividuals in'each of these hells as Dante 



104 LECTURES. 

found them, but that will take too much 
time. However I cannot refrain from giving 
you an account of two of the spirits we 
find here. Do you see that couple clinging 
to each other, as the rude blast dashes them 
hither and thither, now against the ground, 
now against the. bluffs, and now carrying 
them into the air. Do you see the mourn- 
ful expressions of their faces, and the tears 
streaming down the woman's face? In 
spite of their pain and suffering and bruises 
I can see deep-seated love written in their 
countenances. These are Polio and Fran- 
ceses and I must tell you their earthly his- 
tory, for it is interesting, and then the fa- 
ther of this Francesca was one of Dante's 
most intimate friends. 

Francesca was an extremely beautiful 
and lovely and virtuous maiden. Gianciotto 
was a man of much renoun, but of homely 
appearance, deformed and rash. But he 
had determined to marry this maiden, and 
he sent his brother Polo a handsome at- 
tractive young man, to represent him in 



hell. J 05 

the marriage ceremony and to bring her to 
him. Francesca seeing Polo walking in the 
yard, and being told that he was her future 
husband was much pleased with him and im- 
mediately fell in love with him, and during 
the marriage ceremonies thought that she 
was being wedded to this beautiful youth; 
and when she found that she was really wed- 
ded to his homely brother you can imagine 
her disappointment. How ever Polo lived 
with his brother, and Gianciotto was away 
from home a large part of the time, and Polo 
and Francesca became very intimate friends 
— in fact, I think they became real lovers. It 
was during oneofGianciotto's sojourns'away 
from home that one of his servants came to 
him with the news that Polo was making 
love to his wife. FulJ of rage he immediately 
returned, and reaching home he knocked at 
the door, which he found locked. Now there 
was an opening at the other end of the room 
through which it was intended that Polo 
should escape while Francesca was unfas- 
tening the doo r. But Polos garment caught 



106 LECTURES. 

on a nail, and as the door opened Giaiciot- 
to's eyes fell upon him, and h^ dashed at 
him with raised dagger to kill him, but 
Francesca seeing his danger threw hersslf 
between them, and Gianciotto unintention- 
ally drove the dagger into her white bosom. 
The next stroke drove the same dagger 
into Polo's heart; and then Gianciotto left 
them both lying dead on the floor and re- 
turned to the business he had left. They 
were buried in the same grave side by 
side amid the tears of their many friends. 

Now we enter the third circle, where 
the gluttons are punished. Do you seethe 
rain and snow and hail pouring down? 
They continue thus eternally. Do you see 
that great three- headed, savage looking dog 
over there tearing and devouring the souls 
that are brought within his reach? That 
is certainly old Cerberus, the same old fel- 
low that gave us such a fright as we were 
about to enter the Greek and Roman hell a 
few moments since. Yes, the same old 
dog that the Romans had guarding the en- 



HELL. IO7 

trance of hell, Dante found down here in 
this third circle devouring and tearing to 
pieces the unfortunate souls of gluttons. 
Now we must bear in mind that no differ- 
ence what may be done to these souls they 
cannot be destroyed. They may be torn to 
pieces, but they will heal, and they never 
lose the sense of feeling. 

Now we stand in the fifth hell. Behold 
a great pond or lagoon of mud and filth 
and in crowded thick naked mud-bespatter- 
ed forms. See their angry looks as they beat 
each other not onlv with their fists, "but with 
the head and breast and feet", and "tearing 
each other piecemeal with their teeth." 
These are they whom anger overcame while 
on the earth. And do you see those bubbles 
coming up occasionally out of the slime? 
They locate other souls that are entirely 
submerged under this slime. These are 
the ones who were always sullen on the 
earth. And they are gurgling in their 
throats in broken sounds; "ye sullen were 
in the sweet air, which bv the sun is o-lad- 



108 LECTURES. 

dened, bearing within ourselves the sullen 
reek; now we are sullen in this sable mire." 

Now we must climb down this steep 
treacherous precipice into the seventh hell 
where the violent are punished. At the bot- 
tom of the precipice we find ourselves on 
the bank of a river of boiling blood in 
which are immerged up to their eyebrows 
those who were violent against their fellow- 
beinofs on earth. Their shrieks and wails 
tell of their fearful sufferings. 

The second division of this seventh 
hell is a forest of thorne trees bearing poi- 
sonous fruit. How gloomy and dismal it 
seems! As we enter this forest we hear 
voices all around us, but can see no one. 
In the trees are those ugly Harpies, birdlike 
creatures with filthy feet and human face 
and neck. But the noises we hear are not 
from them, and the voices are still a mys- 
tery until one of our company breaks off a 
twig from one of the trees; and to his sur- 
prise and horror blood begins to run from 
the wounded limb, and a voice comes from 



HELL. IO9 

the trunk of the wounded tree; "Why dost 
thou mangle me? Why dost thou rend me? 
Hast thou no spirit whatsoever? Men once 
we were, and now we are changed to trees; 
indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful, 
even if we had been the souls of serpents." 
And these trees are the souls of those who 
were violent against themselves. In this 
forest may be found all the souls of those 
who have murdered themselves to escape 
some greater calamity. And these trees 
are so sensitive that every touch or move- 
ment gives them pain; and those fearful ugly 
Harpies feast on their leaves, and every leaf 
that is plucked leaves a bleeding wound. 
On in the next and third division of this 
seventh hell are punished the violent a- 
gainst God. And the sight that meets our 
gaze is indeed apalling. The air is full of 
red-hot and white-hot flakes of fire. See 
the poor spirits fanning them off, and flinch- 
ing as they light on them, and hear the 
screams and wails and shrieks as the hot 
flakes burn into their naked skins. Some 



IIO LECTURES. 

we see with great blisters all over their bod- 
ies, and some with deep sores burnt into 
them, and still others with all the skin burnt 
off, and others still with the flesh burned 
off the bare bones. And not one of these 
tortured 'souls dare pause fcr a moment to 
rest or for any other purpose, or he imme- 
diately falls prostrate on the hot ground 
and cannot again stir himself for one hun- 
dred years, not even to brush off the flakes 
of fire that are falling thick upon h ; m. 
Such is the punishment of the violent a- 
gainst God and nature and art. 

We must leave this seventh hell and 
hasten on to the eighth ere our time has ex- 
pired, and we miss seeing the greatest and 
and most horrible of all hells. Now in or- 
der to enter this eighth circle of hell we 
must climb down an almost perpendicular 
precipice some thousand feet or more, far 
greater than the last. As we stand looking 
down the dizzy slcpe we can see -far- — far 
below us the fires of hell blazing dimly and 
our ears catch the distant wails and curses 



HELL. 1 1 I 

of the damned. The name given to this 
entire division is Malebolge; and this eighth 
hell, or Malebolge, is divided into ten small- 
er departments called Bolge. 

In the first Bolge the accursed souls 
are being whipped with the most stinging 
lashes; in the second they are wallowing 
and smothering in a filth that decency for- 
bids description of; see their begrimed forms 
and matted hair, a sight that we are only 
too glad to get away from. In the third 
Bolge a sight meets our eyes that at first 
fills us with curiosity. We see all around us 
the feet and legs of human beings sticking 
up out of holes in the ground. Their feet 
are blazing. We see the roasting limbs 
quiver and convulse. Each of these victims 
must continue thus until another is brought, 
when he is pressed down out of sight into 
the fires below to burn forever, and the 
newcomer takes his place. 

Let us pause a moment at the fifth 
Bolge, as we hurry along. Look down 
from where we are standing, and behold a 



112 LECTURES. 

lake of bubbling boiling- matter, like the 
appearance of boiling black tar. Do you 
see here and there the backs of these black 
creatures rise above the surface? Those are 
the black souls that are doomed to spend 
eternity there. As we stand gazing down 
into this furious lake, suddenly a horrid 
looking bLck devil comes rushing up to 
the bank with a doomed soul in the clutch 
of either hand, and dashing up to the bank 
he hurls them headlong into the steaming, 
hissing lake; and w~e shudder as we note 
their horrified looks as they dissapear un- 
der the black surface with a scream that 
will ring in our ears for days. All along 
the shores of this lake we see the noses of 
the poor tortured ghosts sticking up like 
frogs to get a little air; and along the shore 
black devils move; and as they approach 
w^e see the accursed souls draw back into 
the burning pitch. Did you hear that 
scream? Look! Look! See that black 
devil drag forth from the boiling lake all 
covered with burning pitch a doomed soul 



HELL. 113 

that did not note th^ approach of th e 
black sentinel until it was too late. See 
the poor soul struggling and writhing in 
the powerful clutch of the black devil! 
See the fierce devil with a single stroke of 
his panther-like claws tear out the entrails 
of the howling ghost! See all the other 
black devils rush to the scene! See anoth- 
er devil seize his arm in his powerful clutch 
and with a single wrench break it! See an- 
other stab him to the heart with his dagger; 
and another tearing him with his teeth! 
And we turn sick at heart just as we see 
him at last escape the mob of devils, and 
all mangled and torn and lacerated and 
covered with blood leap back for protec- 
tion into the horrid seething lake. 

We find the seventh Bolgia full of ser- 
pents of every horrible and frightful descrip- 
tion; and we see the forms of frighthened 
ghosts running to and fro, and we hear them 
screaming with pain. They have their 
hands tied behind them with serpents. The 
serpents are hissing and coiling themselves 



114 LECTURES. 

round the limbs and bodies and sinking 
their poisonous fangs into their naked flesh. 
My friends, imagine yourselves with your 
hands tied behind you with a serpent, and 
then imagine other serpents winding them- 
selves around your bare limbs or drawing 
their slick slimy folds over your naked body 
raising their ugly heads to stike their poi- 
sonous fangs into your face, and you have a 
faint gleam of this Bolgia. But I have not 
given you the most horrid pictures found here, 
and time will not allow us to remain longer. 
As we enter the eighth Bolgia we find 
ourselves in the midst of beings that are 
maimed and cut in every manner imagina- 
ble. There goes one with his arm cut off, 
another with his ear and nose gone, another 
with but one leg, another with his throat cut, 
and there goes another ghostly form carry- 
ing his head in his hand; and the worst sight 
of all that Dante found amonor these horrid 
sights was the ghost of Mohammed, who 
was ripped open, and his intestines and 
heart and liver and luno-s torn out or in 



HELL. 115 

plain view. Now we hasten on to the last 
Bolgia of the eighth hell. What a loathsome 
sight meets our eyes! Every loathsome dis- 
ease has its victims here. The air is laden 
with an offensive stench as of decaying 
bodies. Weak, sickly, filthy looking souls 
are dragging themselves across our path, or 
are trying to turn themselves, or are lying 
in heaps on the slimy ground. We see 
them rolling their fevered aching heads. 
We see them convulse with griping pains. 
And off there to our right is the most re- 
volting sight of all: there sit two forms 
covered with filthy scabs. See them scratch- 
ing themselves with all the power they 
have, and tearing off the scabs with their 
long bloody nails. 

Now we descend into the last and low- 
est hell. And to our surprise, instead of find- 
ing a heated region, we find a frozen region. 
The inhabitants are all purple with cold. 
Their tears freeze in their eyes and, prevent- 
ing the escape of other tears, increase their 
agony. Some have their ears or noses f roz - 



m6 lectures. 

en off. Among these horrid sights I shall 
take time to call your attention to but one. 
Do you see those two damned souls off 
there to the left that seem to be united? 
Let us, walk over nearer to them. Behold 
it is the spiiits of two men, and one is gnaw- 
ing at the other s skull. Hear his angry 
snarls and the other's pitiful wails. These 
were two great men on earth. The one was 
Count Ugolino, the other Archbishop Rug- 
gieri. Count Ugolino is the one who is 
gnawing at the other s head like a hungry 
hound at a bone, his mouth all covered with 
gore. And now I cannot refrain from again 
stopping to tell you the story of these two 
men on earth. — No; we will ask this beastly 
looking ghost that is gnawing at the other, 
and he will tell his story, if he tell it at all, 
just as it is. "Thou beastly, bloody, famished- 
looking spirit, pray tell us the cause of this 
thy peculiar punishment, and also of the one 
thou art striving to devour." See the ghost 
oi Ugolino look up from his grim repast! 
See him wipe his bloody mouth on the hair 



HELL. 117 

of the one whom he is gnawing, as he pro- 
ceeds; "I will answer thy request. While 
on the sweet eai th I was made prisoner by 
this one, and I and my two loved sons and 
two grandsons were confined in the tower 
which has ever since been known as the 
Tower of Famine. Four brave, innocent 
lads they were, and little did we fear death. 
And little did I dream of the death that 
was awaiting us until the hour for food was 
long past, and I heard my sons moaning in 
their sleep and asking for bread. And 
when they awaked and saw me gazing at 
them with fixed eyes, one said to me; 'Fath- 
er, why dost thou gaze at us thus? What 
doth ail thee?* And after all hope had 
fled I in my anguish did bite my arms and 
hands; and they thinking I did it from 
hunger, said; 'Father, much less pain 'twill 
give us if thou do eat of us; thou didst 
clothe us with this poor flesh, and do thou 
strip it off." And I did calm myself 
and so remained until the fourth day. 
And still we had no food nor water. And 



1 I 8 LECTURES. 

on the fourth day my loved son Gaddo 
throwing himself at my feet cried; 'Father, 
why dost thou not help me?' and died. 
And so the other three, within the two days 
following. Whence I betook myself already 
blind to groping over them and three days 
called them after they were dead. Then 
hunger gnawed my vitals out, as it and 
anger doth enrage me now." And as he fin- 
ishes this speech, see him with increased vig- 
or resume gnawing at the skull with eyes 
distorted; and so we leave them for all eter- 
nity. It is in this hell that Dante found 
Satan; but as he appeared to Dante very 
much as he did to Milton, we shallnottake 
time to see him until we are in the hell we 
are next to explore. 

And now let us hasten to the light a- 
gain, and into the hell mentioned in the 
Bible and explored by Milton let us de- 
scend. 

Milton is the great Christian poet, 
and his hell, described in Paradise Lost, is 
based upon the teachings of the Bible, with 



HELL. 119 

such enlargements as his fertile imagination 
developed. 

There was a rebellion in heaven, led by 
Satan, one of the most powerful of the an- 
gels. The cause of this rebellion was a^de- 
sire on the part of Satan and his followers, 
who comprised about one-third of the an- 
gels of heaven, to exalt themselves to an e- 
quality with God and his Son, to recognize 
no superior. The battles were on the 
grandest scale, and the two mighty armies 
surging to aud fro and tearing up mount- 
ains and hurling them upon each other pro- 
duce a grand and sublime spectacle worthy 
of the pen of a Milton, The Almighty al- 
lowed the two mighty armies to contend for 
some time, and then withdrew all the holy 
angels from the field; and behold a single 
warrior in a great golden chariot set through- 
out with diamonds and drawn by four cel- 
estial animals of gigantic proportions,— see 
him alone dashing against the whole army 
of accursed angels. As he dashes into the 
face of the army, behold him rise in his 



120 LECTURES. 

chariot and hurl a thousand thunderbolts 
into their midst. The whole army is dash- 
ed backward, and dazzled with the sight 
they turn and flee, and as they reach the 
outskirts of heaven see the wall part, and 
the army halts on the verge of an abyss in 
which no bottom can be seen. They turn 
from the awful abyss to flee back, but only 
to find themselves facing their terrible 
adversary, and rather than again face him 
they jump from the verge — down — down — 
down they fall for nine days and nights, and 
then hell opening receives them. Does any 
one ask who was this mighty warrior that 
hurled the whole army from the domains 
of heaven^ It was the mighty Son of the 
Almighty God. And the immortal Milton 
recognized the same mighty being in the 
meek and lowly Jesus of Nazareth, in the 
man that bled and died on the cross; in the 
man that stooped to bless a poor widow, 
that stopped to open the eyes of a money- 
less blind man; yea, in the being that com- 
manded the sun to darken, and a cloud 



HELL. 121 

passed over its face, that commanded the 
earth to tremble, and it shook to its very 
foundation, that commanded Death to loose 
his shrckles from the limbs of the widow's 
son, and the adamantine chains were rent 
asunder. 

But we are again lingering in heaven 
when our commission calls us to hell, where 
we now find ourselves, and behold satan sit- 
ting on his throne in hell. Down below us we 
see a sea of boiling, hissing, molten matter, 
and in it are the souls of the damned, hiss- 
ing like serpants, shrieking like fiends, 
screaming, howling, crying, pleading, and 
every other horrible sound imaginable falls 
on our ears. 

But let us follow a little further the 
army that was hurled from heaven. As soon 
as these accursed angels have had time to 
collect their senses after their fall, a council 
is called by Satan, in which he tells them 
what he heard in heaven to the effect that 
a new world was to be created about this 
time, and on it was to be placed a new crea- 



122 LECTURES. 

ture called man, who was to fill the place 
vacated in heaven by the rebellious angels; 
and it was determined to (ind the way to 
this world and to see what annoyance could 
be given to God through the medium of 
man. But no one was found bold enough 
to undertake such a perilous voyage, until 
finally Satan roused by the hesitation of 
the others declared that he himself would 
do it. 

And now behold satan grim and dark and 
terrible, a hundred feet in stature and wings 
of dragon pattern and monstrous size; be- 
hold him rise on wing and take his solitary 
flight through the dark domains of hell,now 
swerving from side to side to explore the 
hollow deep, now soaring to the very roof, 
he at last reaches the bounds of hell, and 
alighting he moves with mighty strides to- 
ward the gate, which he finds made of nine 
thicknesses, three of brass, three of iron, and 
three of adamantine rock. He. finds this 
guarded by two formidable looking shapes; 
the one has the appearance of a beautiful 



HELL. 123 

woman in face and upper body, but her low- 
er parts are covered with scales, and she 
presents altogether a repulsive appearance. 
Around her are hell-hounds barking, and 
at the approach of Satan they retire, as is 
their custom in time of danger, back into 
her womb, and there continue barking and 
gnawing at her entrails. And the name of 
this creature is Sin, and the other shape 
which is guarding this entrance is her son 
and also the father of these hell-hounds. 

This other form is the real keeper of 
the gate. Behold him standing there as 
great in stature as Satan himself, "black as 
night, fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell," 
holding in his hand a deadly dart, and on 
his head he wears a kingly crown. The 
name of this being is Death. As he sees 
Satan approaching he rises from his seat 
and advances to meet him. "Hell trembled 
as he strode." And now they stand face to 
face. Both are filled with rage at being 
thus confronted; yet neither can help ad- 
miring the gigantic form and powerful pro- 



124 LECTURES. 

portions of his antagonist. Thus Satan 
spoke first: " 'Whence and what art thou, 
execrable shape, that darst, though grim and 
terrible, advance thy miscreated front a- 
thwart my way to yonder gates? Through 
them I mean to pass, that be assured, with- 
out leave asked of thee, Retire, or taste thy 
folly, and learn by proof, hell born, not to 
contend with spirits of heaven.' 

"To whom the goblin full of w<rath re- 
plied; 'Art thou that traitor angel, art thou 
h who first broke peace in' heaven and 
faith, till then unbroken, and in proud re- 
bellious arms drew after him the third part 
of heaven's sons conspired against the 
Highest; for which both thou and they, 
outcast from God. are here condemned to 
waste eternal days in woe and pain? And 
reckonst thou thyself with spirits of heaven, 
hell-doomed, and breathst defiance here 
and scorn, where I reign king, and, to en- 
rage thee more, thy king and lord? Back 
to thy punishment, false fugitive, and to thy 
speed add wings, lest with a whip of scor- 



HELL. 125 

pions I pursue thy lingering, cr with one 
stroke of this dart strange horror seize thee, 
and pangs unfelt before/ So spake the 
grisly terror, and in shape, so speaking and 
so threatning, grew tenfold more dreadful 
and deform. On th' other side incensed 
with indignation Satan stood unterrified. . 
Each at the head leveled his deadly 
aim. Those latal hands no second stroke 
intend, and such a frown each cast at th' 
other, as when two black clouds, with heav- 
en's artillery fraught, come rattling on over 
the Caspian; then stand front to front hov- 
ering in space, t 11 winds the signal blow to 
join their dark encounter in mid air; so 
frowned the mighty combatants that hell 
grew darker at their frown, fo matcl.ed 
they stood; . . . And now great deeds 
had been achieved, whereof ail hell had 
rung, had not the snaky sorceress that sat 
fast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key,ris- 
'n, and with hideous outcry rushed between." 
And now I must tell you the remainder of 
this allegory of Milton's, which figuratively 



126 LECTURES. 

is as true as the Bible itself. Satan while 
in heaven at the time when the thought of 
rebellion first entered his mind was sudden- 
ly seized with a dizziness, aud his eyes grew 
dim, and fearful pains pierced his head, and 
he seemed to swim in darkness, and flames 
shot forth in all directions from his head, 
and suddenly his head opened on the left 
side, and out sprang a beautiful goddess, 
which was named Sin. And Satan lusted 
after her, and took her for his wife, and after 
she was hurled down to hell with the other 
rebellious angels, and when the time had 
arrived for the birth of their offspring, she 
was seized with terrible pains and the off- 
spring, which was Death, the same that 
faced Satan, his father, tore forth through 
her side; and then turning and beholding 
his mother, he lusted after her, and their 
offspring was those horrid hell-hounds. 

What a grand and complete allegory 
that is! Satan is the father of sin; the off- 
spring of Satan and Sin is Death, and the 
offspring of Sin and Death is those loth- 



HELL. 127 

some hell-hounds that are continually 
gnawing at the vitals. 

My friends, we have explored a part of 
the old Greek and Roman hell, of the hell 
of Dante, or the Roman Catholic hell, and 
of Milton's hell; and to what practical ef- 
fect? 1st, All seem to agree as to location 
(which is of minor importance); and 2nd, 
while opinions as to the mode of punish- 
ment vary according to the prevailing idea 
of torture among the different nations or 
classes or sects, yet all agree that the 
punishments of hell are the most appalling, 
the most direful, the most awful. 

Concerning the hell of the Bible, I 
have but little to add, as I believe the 
real essential condition of this hell has been 
pictured clearly in our discussion of the 
other hells. It agrees with them in the idea 
of awfulnes?, in the idea of torment and ex- 
treme torment. 

Now I find (as in the case of heav- 
en) that there sre three hells mention- 
ed in the Bible; and, unfortunately for the 



128 LECTURES. 

common reader, they are all translated by 
the same word in our English Bible — hell 
But in the Greek from which our Bible was 
translated the three words, which are Tar- 
tarus, Gehenna- and Hades, do not mean 
the same thing; in fact, there is almost as 
wide difference between them as there is be- 
tween the three heavens mentioned in the 
Bible. 

Tartarus occurs but once in the New 
Testament; "For if God spared not the an- 
gels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
etc." There is no question as to this mean- 
ing a hell of torment. 

So in regard to Gehenna, there is no 
doubt that it meant a hell .of torment, for 
in the time of Christ and the apostles it 
was used in that sense, and of course they 
used the word in its accepted meaning. It 
is remarkable that of the twelve recurrences 
of this word Gehenna in the Bible eleven 
of them are found in the speeches of our 
Lord: "And if thy hand offend thee, cut t 



HELL. 1 29 

off; it is better for thee to enter into life 
maimed, than having two hands to go into 
hell, into the fire that never shall be quench- 
ed: where the worm dieth not, and the fire 
is not quenched/' No one can mistake 
the real import of these words. When Ge- 
henna is the word that is translated we 
may rest perfectly assured that either the 
tortures of hell or hellish torments are 
meant. 

But Hades is fhe doubtful Greek word, 
and I am pleased to note that the translat- 
ors of the (Revised Version of 1881 have 
left the word untranslated, and you will find 
the Greek word Hades there instead of hell. 
But the question is, What is the real mean- 
ing of Hades'? You remember that the 
Greeks and Romans gave this name to the 
entire regions which we first visited tonight, 
and which consisted of three departments; 
one of happiness, one of torment, and one 
of neither torment nor happiness? Now 
you must know that Christ and the apos- 
tles and the writers of the Bible were im- 



13° LECTURES. 

mediately and directly associated with the 
Romans, and, my friends, this gives us the 
key to the solution of this question. Ha- 
des is used in the Bible sometimes to mean 
this entire region without distinction of 
part, sometimes only the first department, 
or receptacle; i. e. , the immediate state after 
death, and hence sometimes the grave; and 
possibly it sometimes means the division of 
Hades called Tartarus. David writes, "Be- 
cause thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;" 
and do you think that David expected to 
go to the hell of torment? 

O, says my Universalist brother, I 
don't believe there is a hell. You have a 
perfect right to your opinion, my brother, 
if you are honest in it; but I think there is. 
Why? I think there is a hell, first, because 
every nation that has ever existed has be- 
lieved it, in other words, I believe there is a 
hell because it seems that the very nature 
of mind itself forces the belief upon us; 
second, because it is taught by revelation as 
recorded in the Bible; third, because I be- 



HELL. 131 

lieve there is a heaven, and every thing 
that exists has its opposite, — good has its 
evil, joy its sorrow, age can exist only in 
consequence of youth, beauty is contrasted 
with homliness, honesty with deception, and 
heaven with hell; fourth, I believe 'there is 
a hell because the dying words of some 
of the greatest infidels that have ever lived 
have testified to this effect, as their spirit* 
ual senses were opened to the scenes of e- 
ternity. The dying words of Hobbs were, 
i'l am taking a fearful leap in the dark.'' 
William Pope said in his last sickness, "My 
damnation is sealed." Sir Francis New- 
port, "Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell!" 
And Voltaire (although Ingersol denies it), 
"I must die — abandoned of God and of 
men." 

Says Ingersol; If God is a just God 
there -is no hell, for no God has any right 
to call us into existence just to damn us, 
any more than I have a right to call cne of 
those benches into life and then send it to 
hell to suffer through all eternity. Now 



132 LECTURES. 

that has as much the appearance of reason 
as any thing I ever remember having heard 
from Ingersol; and let us investigate; possi- 
bly Ingersol has really risen to a pre-emi- 
nence from which he is qualified to instruct 
his Creator. Suppose some being that has 
the power should actually change one of 
these lifeless benches into a man and en- 
dow him with a mind and all the attributes 
you possess, and suppose he lifts him up on 
a plain, and then says to him; "Man, do you 
see this road before you that leads to that 
beautiful mansion on the hill? Do you see 
those happy beings there? That is a place 
of perfect happiness and joys immeasurable; 
there is no sickness nor sorrow nor pain 
nor death there — nothing to mar your 
happiness, follow that straight path and it 
will lead you safely there; but for fear you 
should make some mistake here is a perfect 
guide-book; take it with you and carefully 
follow its directions. And that there may 
be no possible chance for you to mistake I 
will send my only and beloved son as your 



HELL. 133 

guide; follow him. Rut that path you see 
turning off there and winding down the hill 
do not follow, for it leads to damnation and 
pain and sorrows and eternal punishment" 
And then he lets him go; and we see him 
follow after his guide a few steps, and then 
we see him tuck his head down and look 
first one way and then another, and all at 
once he takes to his heels, and he shoots off 
down the road he was so carefully warned 
against, aud we see his coat-tails sailing out 
behind as he goes round the curve of the 
hill; and, my friends, there goes Bob Inger- 
sol: and he shouts back over his shoulder 
as he disappears round the hill; "God has 
no right to make a man and then send him 
to hell!" Who of you would blame the 
being that would create a man and place 
him under such circumstances? As we 

watch this man, too lazy to climb the sliuht 
incline before him even with the compan- 
ionship of such a guide as that — as we 
watch him turn off down the road he was 
just cautioned against, we would every one 



134 LECTURES. 

rise in indignation and exclaim; Let him be 
damned; he deserves to be damned. 

My friends, my belief in hell is so 
strong that I would not take my chance of 
its torments for any consideration less than 
heaven. 






*&r\ 



-ill 



&<* 




WEAUBLEAU CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE: 1872. 



TO THE OLD BRICK/' 

WEAUBLEAU CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE. 
Written 1892 upon receipt of a. letter from the president 
stating their plan for building a new college. 



They're going to build an edifice 
More spacious and more fine; 

And give to it your Christian name;- 
You've fallen out of line. 



138 POEMS. 

Your walls are plain and out of date, 

Your ceilings are too low 
To echo now the students' weal 

Or share the students' woe. 

No more thy time-worn walls shall hear 
The tread of youthful feet, 

Or smile upon the students'' fate, 
Or well learned lessons greet 

Thy tongue (the cause of many a smile, 
Hath many a smile represt) 

Shall speak no more to youth the hour 
Of study or ot rest. 

No more to modest bride thou'lt sing 
Thy mellow wedding note; 

No more shall wedlock vows be sealed 
By thy strong iron throat. 

No more thy sympathetic tongue 

Shall deepest sorrow tell 
Of those who mourn death's victory, — 

Thou'lt toll no funeral knell. 



"the old brick. m 139 

A buidino- lar^e an I beautiful 

Will grace the village fair; 
And students passing to and fro 

Will hardly know thou'rt there. 

And when the hour for study comes 

Or books to be interred, 
A stronger, clearer voice than thine 

Will from its spire be heard. 

And when the Master from his flock 

Hath called another soul, 
Another voice than thine will moan, — 

Another bell will toll. 

But ah! methinks if some rude ghost 

Just at the midnight hour 
To touch again thy silent tongue 

Should mount thy lonely tower, 

The deep-toned notes that thou wouldst 
Would be a holy tome [speak 

To guide thy wandYing children's feet 
Toward a better home. 



140 



POEMS. 



Alas! like thee material things 
Must molder back to earth; 

But noble deeds aye live, like thee, 
In mem'ry for their worth. 




THE NEW COLLEGE BUILDING: 1893. 



Ah! dear old house with tottering walls, 
With honest careworn face, 

We love thee still, no act of man 
Ce:n bring to thee disgrace. 



THE WHITE GERANIUM. 141 

Thou'st been a tender nurse to us, 
Thou'st been a mother fond; 

We're bound to thee by memory's chain 
And love's serenest bond. 

And when the Angel Death shall come 
These earthly bonds to sever, 

Methinks I'll hear thee call; "Dear child 
Come home forever — ever." 



THE WHITE GERANIUM. 

TO A PURE WHITE GERANIUM 
IN MY STUDY-WINDOW. 

Ah! lovely flower of pure and spotless white 
That from my study window smiles on me, 
A plant so fair, without a single blight, 
My lines seem harsh for creature such as 

thee; 
And yet from offering thanks I'd scarce re- 
frain, 
Such dear reflections thou'st awaked in|me, 
Such joy thou'st given, yet not without 
some pain, 



142 POEMS. 

And strong desire like thy pure s If to b >. 
How obvious are the faults when m; n's 
compared to thee! 

Sweet flower! emblem of purity sublime, 
Thou'st not a spot upon thy heavenly face. 
As thou wast native of celestial clime, 
I read the thoughts of angels in thy face. 
Thou shedst a rich and delicate perfume, 
That, like the rays shed from the Queen of 

Night, 
Dispel with magic touch the darksome 
gloom, 

And give instead a soft and mellow light. 
Thy modest odors well become thy face so 

white. 
Ah! sweet geranium, would my life might be 
Like thine: my deeds all good, all motives 

love, 
My soul as white, from spots of sin as free, 
When viewed by eyes unerring from above. 
Would my poor influence, like thy sweet 

perfume, 
Might shed a sweetness that would permeate 



RHYMED ADVICE7 I 43 

My fellow beings' lives, dispel their gloom' 
And in their souls, as thou in mine, create 
Sublimer thoughts, and deeper thirst for 
Heaven's estate. 



RHYMED ADVICE. 

Do with a will all things that you do; 

Be thorough, be cheerful, be honest and true; 

Don't boast of your wealth or your know- 
ledge of books, 

And don't — don't, I beg you, be vain of 
your looks: 

For one who is homely and isn't aware 

Is of all things most funny, on earth or in air; 

But of all things disgusting, I'm led to 

declare, 
Tis an ignorant bigot, as you are aware. 

The one who is wanting yet boasts of his 
worth 

s an object of pity, as well as of mirth. 
If you're wealthy (what folly) don't get 
all askew 



144 POEMS. 

In trying to exhibit a jewel or two. 

If you've learning, why, bless you, 'tis sure 

to crop out 
Without your mouthing it round about 
Beware of your speaking as well as your 

deeds, 
Only good grain will grow where thou sovv- 

est ofood seeds. 

Time is a sheet on which we engrave 
Each smile, word and action, each thought 

we may have; 
' Tis recorded forever, — forever 'tis gone, 
The same -instant lays it 'fore God on his 

throne. 

MY GRAVE. 

When I am dead, pray bury me 
In Weaubleau's graveyard; and a tree 
Pray plant above my lifeless head: 
Will you do this when I am dead? 

And when you've laid me in my grave, 
Pray do not mournfully behave; 



MY GRAVE. 145 

But say, a soul has gone to rest 
To dwell with Gods eternal blest. 



And when the spring has brought her 

flowers, 
If you should find some leisure hours, 
Pray deck my grave in gorgeous bloom 
And hang a wreath upon my tomb. 

If from my Alma, J&ater, some 
Among thefgraves should chance to roam, 
When at my tomb you stop to gaze, 
Tell your companion; "Here one lies 

"Who loved to tread these paths of yore; 
But now he walks a fairer shore," 
And may your thoughts be turned from 
To heaven's golden portals fair. [there 

And if fond lovers chance to stray 
Anear the grave wherein I lie, 
From oft my grave a rose pray take 
And to your love give't for my sake. 



146 POEMS. 

My epitaph upon the stone 
Do not forget when I am gone; 
Thus write in verse: Here lieth one 
Beneath this cold gray marble stone; 

A native of the village here, 
A student of the college near, 
Though during life he chose to roam, 
When death did call he turned toward home, 

And chose for his last resting place 
This humble spot which now you trace; 
Though back to earth his mold was given, 
His spirit dwells with God in heaven. 



IS THERE A GOD? 

"Is there a God?" the skeptic asked 

As by a lovely rose he passed; 

The rose looked up and said, "Behold 

My colors richer than thy gold, 

My face and form and symmetry, — : 

No power but God could give them me.' 

The man was deaf, and heard it not, 






IS THERE A GOD? 147 

But plodded onward from the spot 
As onward through the wood he trod 
Again inquired, "Is there a God?" 
A squirrel answered from his tree, 
"Poor doubting wretch, look up at me; 
Behold my handsome coat of gray; 
Who changes it to suit the day? 
In summer light, in winter warm, 
To shield me from both heat and storm. 
Who gave me power the tree to climb? 
To spring with ease from limb to limb? 
Who gave me nuts for winter's store? 
Who gave me all of these and more? 
It seems to me, thou doubting clod, 
None other could give these than God." 
The man was blind, and did not see 
The pretty squirrel in the tree. 
He cut a staff from off a tree; 
"Is there a God?" again asked he. 
The staff made answer; "Rude man, hark! 
Search close my texture, sap and bark; 
My leaf examine, fruit inspect, 
And tell me if thy intellect 
Can fashion any part of me; — 



14^ POEMS. 

Or can thy art create a tree? 

Create like me a trifling rod 

Wouldst thou not need help from a G :>d? 

Alas, the man was blind and deaf, 

Nor heard nor saw the reasoning staff. 

On down the road with sullen plod, 
He's murmuring still, "Is there a God?'* 
The south wind answers; "Man, I greet 
Thee with rare odors fresh and sweet; 
IVe brought them from rich beds of flowers, 
From blooming orchards and sweet bowers; 
Sweet fragrant odors made to please. 
What power but God created these?" 
The sweet perfume he can't adore. 
For sense of smell he has no more. 

Now in an orchard resting lay, 

"Is there a God?" I hear him say. 

A chorus of sweet voices come 

From peach and apple, pear and plum; 

"Come taste of us; thou'rt welcome true, 

For we have been prepared for you. 

From air and water, soil and sod, 



i IS THERE A GOD? 1 49 

We have been fashioned bv a God. 
All other powers combined must ask 
Help from a God for such a task." 
Although their words he could not hear, 
Nor could he see their colors fair, 
Nor yet their fragrant odors smell, 
In spite of these he ate his fill. 
As proof of God 'twas all a waste, 
For he had not the power of taste. 

Now summer with her charms is gone, 
And howling winter rushes on. 
Fierce^cold outside the panting storm; 
Inside the skeptic snug and warm 
Sits gazing at the well filled hod 
And pondering still; "Is their a God?" 
The fire provoked blushed deeper red 
And with half smothered wrath it said; 
"Ungrateful man, dost thou not feel 
My warm breath o'er thy body steal? 
Whence comes this warmth? The coal is 

burned? 
But can st thou tell how 'tis performed? 
Who'll change the coal within thy hod 



15° POEMS. 

To heat and light, except a God? 
Who bids my rays against tht storm 
Besieging now to do thee harm? 
I dash half-million miles an hour 
Against my foe. Who gives me power? 
Who gives my sire, the Sun, so bold, 
Command to battle gainst the cold? 
Power to defeat and drive him back 
And spread spring's carpet on his track? 
A hundred million miles away 
He cannonades the foe of day, 
Dethrones the Goddess, Nyx, or Night, 
Restores Hemera to his right. — 
What, man, dost thou affect to nod 
Still disbelieving in a God? 
If 'twere not for Omnipotence 
To rule the universe immense, 
To Whom thou dost commit to keep 
Un'ware thy soul while thou dost sleep, 
Thou mightst awake (if e'er again) 
To find thyself no more a man, 
But toad, or sheep, or stubborn mule, 
Or (slight if changed at all) a fool." 



IS THERE A GOD? 151 

Poor self-made prisoner, shut within 
Thy narrow walls stained o'er with sin, 
Thy windows closed, through which the soul 
Might be convinced beyond control, 
And leaping from its prison cell 
Gloomy and dark (forecast of hell), 
Exclaim with rapturous heart intent, 
"There is a God omnipotent;" 
Weak man, if when thy sensual eyes 
Again the light do realize, 
If thou'dst but ope the spiritual sense 
(Oh! what a blessed recompense!) 
Thou'dst change thy sorrow, gloom and hell 
For joys no tongue or pen can tell. 
The skeptic woke but doubting still, 
For, light shut out, his mind was full 
Of crafty fogs and blinding mist, 
And he became an atheist. 
"There is no God," the atheist cried; 

The lightning flashed across the heaven 
And thundered back; 'Poor fool, thou'st lied; 

By God thy tougue profane was giv en. 
And then the lightning wrote in gold 

So bright the atheist could not trace, 



152 POEMS. 

"There is a God of power untold; 
I'm faint reflection of his face." 

Man, fallen brother, why doest thou, 
A slave to sin and gloom till now, 
Longer deter thy restless soul 
From flying toward its cherished goal? 
For ne'er to man by God was given 
A soul without desire for heaven. 
Thy soul shut in like some wild bird, 
With song as sweet as ever heard, 
Trembling within its close confine, 
Afraid to sing, can only pine. 
Open thy sours five windows given, 
Let in the golden flood from heaven. 
'Twill light thy tottering temporal home 
And picture heaven's eternal dome. 
Thy enraptured soul from bondage free 
Will sing sweet songs of eternity. 



LOVE. 

What is it that man calleth love, 
Of which the poets sing? 
Is't that which brings unbounded joy 
On happy golden wing? 

Is't like the newly fallen snow, 

So pure and soft and white, 

That clasps in one soft sweet embrace, 

Then quickly takes its flight? 

Or like the first sweet summer flowers 
That make your fond heart start, 
But when you have secured the prize, 
Its sweetness will depart? 

Ah no, though pure as falling snow 
And sweet as summer flowers, 
It does not change with weather's signs 
Or wither with the hours. 



154 POEMS, 

'Tis that which fills the parents' hearts 
With joy unspeakable, 
As on their child their fond hearts fix; — 
Their pleasure's cup is full. 

Tis that which fills that fearful cry, 
As by the grave they kneel; 
Though joy it gave unspeakable, 
Its sorrows none can tell. 

'Tis that which binds fond lovers' hearts 
With gold and silver bands, 
That makes their hearts with rapture throb 
Ere they have joined their hands. 

But when Death comes with summons bold 

To call one of the twain, 

Tis this same love that rends the heart, 

That gives the other pain. 

* 

Alas! 'tis like a serpent vile 
That on thy breast doth sleep, 
And if thou wouldst remove it thence, 
Its poisonous fangs sink deep. 



THE CONTRAST. I 55 

But Oh, there is a higher love, 
Of purer, nobler fame; 
The love that fixes this poor hear 
On Jesus' precious name. 



THE CONTRAST. 

•TVe made my fortune, wife, at last, 

Today I closed my storey 
My life ? s work now is surely done, 

I'll tend the bar no more. 

W 'A life of pleasure now we'll live, 

All things we wish we'll have; 
Of money we'll have plenty now 

To buy whatever we crave. 

"'Although some cranks may think I've got 

My money a wrong way, 
Yet what care we for what th y think, 

Or even what they say? 



1 56 poems. 

"Tis true Tom Johnson was shot dead 
Down here the other night; 

And what if I did sell him rum? 
Did I not have the right? 

"They say I ought to help his wife, 

His ragged children feed: 
I'll teach them that I don't belong' 

To any such a creed. 

U I never caused that plagued fight— - 

I simply sold him rum 
According to the laws, and then 

I started him toward home: 

"Nor did I make her marry him; 

Its none of my affairs; 
If men get killed, I'd like to know 

If Zmust feed their heirs. 

"This fortune's mine, I've earned it and 

I'll use at as I please; 
If others cannot earn fheir fare, 

Why, let them starve or freeze,'' 



THE CONTRAST. I 5./ 

Such was the conversation at 

An ex-rumseller's home 
One cold and bleak December night; 

Outside seemed frozen gloom. 

But in another part of town 
The scene was different quite* 

For in an old low open hut 
On this same wintry night, 

A mother knelt beside a bed 

Wherein a little girl 
With pallid face and sunken eyes 

And ha*r in golden curl 

Lay shivering from lack of food 

And from the bitter cold: 
While in her arms the mother held 

A babe in loving fold. 

Nor is't the power of tongue to paint 

That sainted mother's face, 
As by the bed she kneels to ask 

Of Him for strengthening graces— 



t6o poems. 

"Here, Lord, receive my darlings child; 

I give her back to Thee: 
Twill not be long till Death shall come 

With tidings glad for me; 

"Twill be so short a time I'll keep 

Not een a single curl. 
Your mammall meet you there ere long, 

Then good-bye, little Pearl.'* 

The sun arose, the day was bright, 

O'er head a clear blue sky; 
But in an old hut off the road 

Was heard an infant's cry: 

They found the babe clasped in the arms 

Of a dead mother white, 
While on the bed lay little Pearl — 

Ah, 'twas a fearful sight. 

But woe be to the rum-seller! 

Though now his pleasure s great 
He tco will have to give account 

Before that judgment seat. 



THE CONVICTS LAST NIGHT. I 6 I 

And there as witnesses gainst him 
Willi radiant count'nance mild, 

*Mong other angel forms he'll see 
Tom Johnson's wife and child. 



THE CONVICT'S LAST NIGHT. 

" Is life worth living?" came the cry 
From a convict in a cell near by, 
As another day was closing o'er 
A life that should be free no more. 

Low man, what is a life like that 

In this world to be valued at? 

What has your wicked life been worth, 

Though traced to death from time of birth? 

The prisoner groaned, in anguish said; 
"I would that I had ne'er been bred; 
My life has been a life of crime, 
From early youth to present time, 



1 62 POEMS . 

"And now as in these chains I groan, 
It seems there's pain in every bole; 
I'm bound in fetters, scourged, abused,— 
Oh, that these limbs again were loosed. 

"But from these fetters free again 
I'll never be till armed men 
Shall lead me to the scaffold high, 
From thence to fall and gasp and die. 

"And if 'twere all, I'd laugh to see 
Those armed soldiers come for me; 
But oh! there's something in my breast 
That tells me I shall never rest; 

"Twas put there by a mother's hand, — - 
Oh that by her I now could stand!— 
For when a child I've heard her tell 
About a burning fiery hell. 

"Ah yes, that mothor on her knee, 
Has prayed and plead and wept for me: 
And since from her in sin I've strayed, 
I know not how ofttimes she's prayed'. 



163 the convtct's last night. 

"But if that mother's living yet, 
I know tonight her cheeks are wet 
With tears that from the heart do pour- 
Ah! that dear face I'll see no more. 

"O mother, I am glad tonight, 
You do not know my fearful plight; 
For ere another sun has set, 
I will my fatal doom have met. 

"Tonight I'll close my weary eyes, 
And with the morning sun shall rise 
To once again behold the light; 
But this on earth is my last night: 

"And 'twere not that I had to meet 
My God before that judgment seat, 
I'd shout for joy to know that I 
Should from yon scaffold leap and die. 

"For I am suffering here a hell 
It is beyond my power to tell. 
This aching, gnawing, pain within* 
Is punishment for all my sin. 



1 64 POEMS. 

"Can any hell be worse than this, 
Though mid the serpents' fiendish hiss?- 
But hark! I hear the tramp of feet 
Upon the frozen icy street; 

"It is the guards, they've come for me, 
And from these chains I'll soon be tree;- 
But no! my -spul'shall never be 
From Satan's iron fetters free. 

"But lo! they say my time has come — 
Alas! the dire results of rum; 
For rum it was that brought me here, 
That led me from a mother dear. 

"Alone I'll mount the scaffold high, 
Nor shrink nor stumble, fall or cry; — 
But, guards, for God's sake, never tell 
My mother how I went to hell 



A TRUE LOVE STORY* 

Dark shadows o'er my life may fall, 
The world may chide me sore, 

My heart may ache from rude abuse 
And pleasure seem no more; 

Sad disappointment block my way, 
The world seem cold and drear, 

No voices sound the same, today 
As those I'm wont to hear; 

My mind may drift from theme to theme, 

To victory, fame, or strife, 
Bat only duping bubbles finds; — 

These are the cheats of life. 

Flagitious apparitions these, 

Were they God's noblest giving; — 

Defeat, strife, victory and fam^. — 
Life were not worth the living. 



1 66 POEMS. 

But Io! those shadows all dispelled 

My soul is all aglow 
With something th at ccmrjrtd with fame 

Or laurels or vain show 

Is like comparing purity 

With filth, or heavtn with earth; 

So sweet the wondrous change that's wrought, 
Fresh showers after death. 

You ask what wrought the happy change? 

Gave happiness for woe? 
It was a thought of her I love, 

So tender, kind aud true. 

Her presence soothes my aching brain, 
Calls back my mind from strife. — 

Who is it that thus owns my heart? — 
My own true love — my wife. 

Tis love that lights this world of ours: 

A taste of heaven above; 
The medium through which bliss is viewed, 

Ah truly, "God is love. " 



A TRUE LOVE STORY. I 67 

Lone weary traveler in rags, 

Limbs tired and bleeding feet, 
If thou art traveling toward thy home 

True loved ones there to greet, 

Thou'rt happier than the millionaire 

Drawn by his steeds of black, 
Or sitting on his throne of gold 

With legions at his back, 

If with his paltry wealth he own 

Not earth's best source of pleasure,— 

A true tried heart, a friend indeed, — 
'Tis life's most precio\is treasure. 

Alas! poor wretch, thou'rt poor indeed, 

Be thou a railroad lord, 
A prince, a king, or millionaire, 

Or miser with thy horde, 

If when the evening shades are faU'n, 
And thou art at thy leisure, m 

Thou hast not home with loved ones there, 
Poof nan, thou know'st not pleasure. 



1 68 POEMS. 

How hopeless on the Sea of Time 

Is that poor ship of life 
Which has not for its pilot Love, 

Be't sister, mother, wife. 

No other pilot knows the rocks 

And hidden reefs so well, 
Can guide the trustless vessel past 

The dark vortex of hell, 

Or through life's troubled rolling wave, 
Fierce storm, or wild cyclone, 

Safe to the shore Eternity, 
'Fore God's celestial throne, 



THE VOW NOT BROKEN. 

That eagle floating over head 
Will soar to realms on high; 

Oh, that I could but take its wings 
And sail out through the sky! 

I'd sail to other parts than these, 

To seek a treasure fair, 
That's cost me many a mournful hour, 

That's called forth many a prayer. 

She's tall and blithe and handsome> 

Her eyes a hazel hue; 
The treasures that with her would rank 

Methinks are very few. 

The last time that I saw her, 
The vows that we did make 

Beneath the tall old elm tree, 
Beside the clear smooth lake; 



1 70 poems. 

There in the clear still moon-light, 
Through those great elm-tree boughs* 

The moon looked down, a witness, 
A witness of our vows. 

I held her soft white hand in mine, 

And when she sealed the vow 

I pressed it to my lips, — but oh! 
I cannot do it now. 

For since that time long years have passed^ 

And I afar did roam; 
And when at last I did return 

They told me she had gone. 

But oh! it cannot, must not be 

That I alone must roam 
Through this sad life without the one 

That would have blessed my home. 

What care I for a life like this? 

Why should I want to live, 
When she, the one that owns my heart, 

Has sought her home above? 



THE VOW NOT BROKEN. 171 

I'm all alone beside the grave, 

How lonely here am I! 
Beneath this mound, this cold clamp clay, 

The one I love doth lie. 

The world is looking idly on; 

They ask me why I stay 
Beside this cold and lifeless mound 

Through all the night and day. — 

Move on, thou idle staring crowd! 

You know not what I feel: 
With me you cannot sympathize, 

As by this grave I kneel. 

Why should I leave this heap of dust? 

Its all that's left me now. — 
Thou God of all the universe, 

What have I done so low, 

So deep in sin, what crime so base, 

That Thou dost in me swell 
This anguish, this internal fire, — 

Does it ccme fcrth frcm hell? 



I 72 POEMS. 

What crime against Thee have I done 
That this torment should be? 

Before Thy great and honored name 
I've ever bent the knee. 

There others are in sin so deep 
Thou could^t but scarce reclaim; 

They pride themselves in cursing Thee, 
Profane Thy holy name. 

Yet they in happiness do dwell; 

While I, crushed by Thy power, 
Do suffer all the torments e'er 

A mortal suffered here. 

O Thou, the King of all the earth, 

In heaven exalted be, 
This pain (if punitive it is) 

Unjust Thou art to me. 

Hush! Hark! I hear a soft sweet sound!- 
I've heard that voice before; 

The last time that I heard it 
W^s on yon moon-lit shore: 



THE VOW NOT BROKEN. I 73 

That lonely cot beside the lake, 
Within that vine-wreathed door. 

(That cottage is so lonely now, 
Because she's there no more.) 

But listen! hush! be still, O heart! 

Thy noisy fluttering cease; 
It is an angels voice I hear, 

My aching heart to ease. 

Though angel speak, I recognize 

The voice of that same one 
They told me from this earth had fled, 

And up to heaven had flown. 

In accents sweet, with heavenly rhythm, 

I hear that voice proceed; 
"Oh love, 1 come to visit you, 

A friend in time of need. 

"The God Whom thou didst just profane, 

'Twas He Who sent me here 
To reconcile thy broken heart, 

To dry that burning tear. 



174 POEMS. 

"My love for you is just as great — 

Yes, greater it is now, 
Than when beneath yon elm-tree 

We made and sealed the vow. 

"Til walk with you through life's^rough 
Your guardian angel be; [road, 

And if you walk in uprightness, 
Much joy in heaven there'll be. 

ft The promise made I will not break 

E'en in this mortal life, 
And though you see me not on earth, 
I'll be your angel wife. 

"This charge to me hath God assigned, 

On earth to guard your feet, 
That when your life down here is done, 
With God in heaven we'll meet. 

"Then weep for me no more, my love. 

Rise from that cold dead clay: 
Thou knowcst now I've risen thence 

To walk with thee for aye, 



THE VOW NOT BROKEN. I 75 

"No more on earth thou'lt hear my voice, 

Nor presence wilt thou feel; 
But me thou shalt see, hear and know, 

When thou hast crossed the vale." 

O God forgive my heinous crime; 

I have no fault 'gainst Thee: 
Thou'st filled with joy this lowly life 

By sending such as she. 



HOME. SWEET HOME. 

Written for, *nd sung by the students of Weaublaaii 
Christian Institute, at the literary entertainment aiihe 
fflose of a year of school. 

Dear friends and dear school-mates, to- 
gether we've come; 

Our last lesson learned and our terms work 
is done: 

How sweet is the thought, in our spirits 
what joy; 

They're waiting at home for their girl or 
their boy. 

Chorus. ["Home, sweet home, etc."] 

The fond recollections of days that are gone 
Recall in our mem'ries sweet visions of home. 
There's no thought so sweet to our visions 

may come; 
There's no place so dear or so sacred as 

home. 

Chorus. 

As now our fond greeting to you we extend, 
We part our lone ways through the cold 

world to trend: 
Where e'er we may go may our thoughts 

fondly turn 
To our dear alma, Mater as child-hood's 

sweet home. 

Chorus, 



\k$ ^w^ ^1 



j^ROM PnPUBLISHED DISCOURSES, 



M4ECD0TES, 



$m 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. I 79 

not a cloud to cast a shade over the lovely 
scene. 



Is it not strange that when a creed is 
attacked its followers try to defend it by 
proving that the same principles were set 
forth in the Bible,thus making the Bible the 
proof and their creed the proposition? And 
yet the object of creed is to simplify the Bi- 
ble? Can it be possible that we are living 
in a new mathematical age, in which the 
old principles are reversed? 

In the present age it is possible for ev- 
ery parent to educate his children, and the 
parent who does not do it is certainly not do- 
ing his duty in behalf of his child. He who 
educates his child gives him an estate that 
is more valuable than a farm or bank stock 
or railroad shares, an estate that he can nev- 
er lose, that can never be given for lawyers' 
fees; sDiriething that is a continuous source 
of pleasure, profit and usefulness; something 
that is only increased by use. 



J So EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

{From Funeral Address on the death of 
Cfeorge H. HendrieJcson.') 

In the mysterious workings of an al- 
mighty, all-seeing, merciful God, there are 
many things that poor, weak, finite man 
cannot understand. 

Among the inevitable decrees of the 
infinite Author of Nature, none brings more 
sorrow, more pain, greater heart-aches, than 
does the decree of death. And yet there 
seems to be written in the form of every 
creature, of whatever nature, to which God 
has given life; 

To whatever life is given, 
From the same it shall be riven. 

Another truth that nature everywhere 
teaches is, that whatever possesses life ren- 
ders its greatest service in death. We 
mourn the death of the rich green foliage 
of the fields; and yet the sapping and death 
of the blades alone makes it possible for us 
to gather the golden grain. We mourn the 
death of the flowers; and yet the sweet flow- 
ers must die and decay and surrender back 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. I 8 I 

to the mother elements their material sub- 
stance before it is possible to gather the 
fruit. And, above all, we mourn the death 
of a loved fellow being; and yet it is impos- 
sible for the great Master Reaper, whose 
field is the infinite universe, whose granery 
is heaven, and whose harvest is the souls of 
the blessed, — it is impossible to gather ex- 
cept they first be severed from the stock; — 
and the sickle that severs them is called 
Death. Death is the sword that cuts the 
ligaments that bind immortal souls to molds 
of lifeless clay. Death is the gate between 
time and eternity. Death is a curtain between 
the never-dying soul of man and its creator. 
Death is a river, on the one side the deep 
black mud of trial and temptation, the slip- 
pery clay of disapointment, the hard sharp 
stones of pain and grief, the weeping willow 
tree, and all clouded by the dark vapors of 
gloom and despondency; on the other side, 
the pearly sands of pleasure, the golden 
banks of contentment, the fruitful tree of 
life, the pure sweet atmosphere of love, and 



I 82 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

While questions may arise as to the 
dates of the Old Testament, or the Trinity, 
or the Atonement, or the mode of baptism, 
etc., yet thegrand blessed monumental truth 
stands towering above it all: THERE IS 
NO QUESTION AS TO THE REAL 
ESSENTIALS OF SALVATION. Those 
who are using these apparent difficulties as 
grab-hocks with which to tear to pieces 
the church of God, are trying to get to 
heaven through the dry, stony, thorny dest-rts 
of formality, and dragging their followers af- 
ter them. — My brother, as you try to 
quench your burning thirst at the stagnant 
pools of sectarinism, do you not sometimes 
thirst for the pure cool "water of life"? As 
the thorns of contention and the briars of 
strife tear your flesh, do you not sometimes 
long to walk through the soft meadows — 
"the green pastures'" — of Bible simplicity? 
As you stumble over the rocks of human 
bigotry and egotism, and as you stop to 
bandage up your bruised body, does not 
your meditation sometimes suggest to you 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 1 83 

that you were not appointed to add to 
the Book of Life what the Divine Son of 
God ommitted? That you were not commis- 
sioned to interpret the Scriptures for your 
fellow-beings? O my brother, why not 
come over out of the dry, rocky, thorny, 
barren deserts into the "green pastures, be- 
side the still waters"? Instead of quarreling 
over "the atonement," why not point your 
flock to the Lamb of God, suffering, bleed- 
ing, dying on the cross to save them? In- 
stead-vof dividing the church by your un- 
scriptural and unedifying discourses on the 
Trinity, why not lead your fellow-beings to 
know and to love and to follow the blessed 
example that was set before them? Instead 
of wrangling over the mode of baptism, 
why not instruct them in the plain, simple, 
undisputed principles of the mode of life? 

Dividing God's children is the work 
of the devil; union of God's children is the 
fulfilment of the prayer of Christ. 



184 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

Mixing creed with the Bible is like 
"salting" butter with white sand, The d cep- 
tion is not apparent until one attempts to 
eat it, but when chewed (analyzed) it gives a 
"grating" sensation. The direction on the 
outside of each package is, "Swallow with- 
out chewing." 



"Are not CHRISTIANS innovators?" 
Yes, my brother, in exactly the same sense 
that Christ was when he scourged and drove 
forth from the temple of God those who 
were using it for personal gain and selfish 
ends. 



My creed: brother, when, where and 
from whom did you receive the command 
to interpret the Scriptures for me? 
— * — 

The man who thinks he has been "born 
again" and yet takes more interest in ex- 
pounding his creed than in preaching the Bi- 
ble mayjrest pretty well assured that, if he 
was, it was of the devil. 



EXTRACTS. ANECDOTES, ETC. I 85 

The religion that does not make a 
man a better citizen is not Christian. 



Some people think that every nickle given 
to the church or Sunday School is so much 
toward purchasing their souls from the 
bondage of hell; and when they have paid 
as much as four or five dollars a year they 
think they have paid the . ransom: that is 
a very good price, my brother, for such a 
small soul; but when your giving is prompt- 
ed by such a motive it is charged to your 
account with the devil, and leaves you only 
the deeper in debt. 

— * — 
Isn't it strange that when a creed is 
at'acked its followers try to defend it by 
proving that the same principles were set 
forth in the Bible, thus making the Bible 
the proof and their creed the proposition? 
And yet the object of creed is to simplify 
the Bifre? Can it be possible that we are 
living in a new mathematical age, in which 
the old principles are reversed? 



I 86 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

We pride ourselves on being the most 
enlightened nation on the face of the earth, 
and yet our women are slaves to a fashion 
at which the heathen women would laugh. 
O, says the mother, I allow my daughter to 
dress according to the fashion for the same 
that I used to. — And pray what is that? — 
Why, she presents a more attractive form. 
— To whom? — To the gentlemen, of 
course. — Where is the- gentleman that ad- 
mires such a form? Let him court the spi- 
der; he has no eye for a lady. It would ap- 
pear that our ladies had read Solomon's 
command; "Go to the ant, thou woman, con- 
sider her waiste, and be like her." 

Am I bold enough to say that dress- 
ing according to fashion is worshipping the 
devil and therefore a sin? you ask. An- 
swer the question for yourself. Is it a sin 
to deform the body God has given you? 
Is it a sin to hand down to your posterity 
a weaker constitution than that of your pro- 
enitors, — to shorten the days of each sue- 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 1 87 

ceedihor generation on earth? Is it a sin to 
apprentice the human family to the great 
monopoly of disease? 

I am glad to note that the reform in 
the dress fashion has already begun. But 
it will require several generations to recover 
from the effects. Two centuries hence, I 
prophesy, this inhuman fashion will be re- 
membered only by the pictures hung in the 
museums to represent one of the curiosities 
of the past. May. God speed the day. 
— $ — 

Baptist. — My dear Methodist brother, 
why won't you join our church? 

Methodist. — Why won't you join our 
church? 

Baptist. — Would you admit me? 

Methodist. — Yes; if you will continue 
in a state of probation six months. 

Baptist. — I will, if you will let me soak 
you the same time. 

( Which is the most necessary f) 



I 88 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

{From "The (Devil and His (Demons: ") 

Do you see that young man going 
down the street, cagecl in a sn-r.d-up collar, 
a cane in his hand, generally with a cegar 
in his mouth, his hat on one side or the 
back of his head, and such other additions 
as go to make up our modern dude? It is 
the same burlesque on nature of which 
Robert Burns was thinking when he wrote; 

"Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord, 

Wha struts and stares, and a' that; 
Though hundreds worship at his word, 

He's but a coof for a' that; 
For a r that, and a' that, 

His riband, star, and a' that, 
The man of independent mind, 
He looks and laughs at a' that." 
I note however one distinction between 
the dude. o( the present day and this "birk- 
ie" or 'c )of which Burns describes. It 
appears that Burns's birkie was wealthy and 
..( wned all that surrounded him and all that 
he wore, whiL th 2 modern dude wears all 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. I 89 

that he owns, as a rule, 

Although Burns says, "The man of in- 
dependent mind, he looks and laughs at a' 
that", and he is rather a comical sight, yet 
he is also an object of pity. Didyou ever 
stop to think how that poor fellow's back 
ached at night? How his neck and legs ach- 
ed from having been held so stiff all day? 
And all this is done - in devotion to his god! 
Would that the worshipers of the true God 
worshipped with half the devotion. 
— * — 

Christians drink whiskey and chew 
tobacco and dance? If the devil were com- 
missary-general I wonder what he would 
give his army to drink, and what he would 
have them chew, and what he would recom- 
mend for recreation? 

— * — 

The ministry is today a mercenary, 
profession, and the devil is supplying a 
large number of the pulpits. Where the 
salary is sufficient to justify it he occasion- 
ally occupies the stand himself. 



190 EXTRACTS, ANFCDOTES, ETC. 

Is it any wonder men are striking for 
higher wages when working men are paying 
annually ever $200 per family for strong 
drink? It is a notorious fact that the labor- 
ing men are the greatest consumers Of alco- 
hol. I tell you I have not much sympathy 
for the man who earns $3x0 a year and 
spends §200 of that for dr ink, and then cries 
for reform in labor wages. I tell you I have 
not much sympathy for these hundreds of 
news-papers that are hcwling for labor re-^ 
form and are too delicate to touch the great 
powerful monster that is bearing us down. 
They are simply scaling the bark off a twig 
of the monstrous tree of oppression and 
leaving - the great trunk unmolested. Can 
you fell the mighty oak of the forest by 
simply hacking at the limbs with a hatchet? 
You may secure your labor reforms; you 
may secure your financial reforms; you may 
secure your governmental reforms; but I 
tel! you the pressure on the laboring classes 
will nevt-r be relieved until the great liquor 
reform is instigated. 



EXTRACTS. AN ECDOT ES, ETC. 1 9 I 

When one employs a man to feed his 
bogs, he does not ask: "Are you a Baptist?" 
'Are you a Republican?" 'Are you a Ma- 
son?" The question is; Are you qualified} 
Yet when the same man is employing a 
teacher, the intellectual feeder of his child, 
is it not surprising to know that the first 
questions in many instances have prece- 
dence over the last? Does he attach more 
importance to the feeding of swill to swine 
than to the developing of the mental pow- 
ers of his child? or has the wool of creed 
and selfishness and sectarianism so matted. 

itself over his eyes that he mistakes his 
children for hogs and his hogs for his chil- 

dren? 



Have you ever heard of the minister who 

pays $40 for a suit of broad-cloth in which 

to represent the "meek and lowly Jesus"? 
Could he have taught God's children as 
well in a twelve dollar suit? Could his wife 
have worshipped in as acceptable a manner 
in a plain five dollar dress as in her twen- 
tv-five dollar silk? 



192 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

Creed is a greater hindrance to the 
progress of Christianity than are all the 
forces of infidelity combined. 



One of the most pitiable s'ohts is the 
church member who has not back bone e- 
nough to vote as he prays. I mean the 
man who is so prominent in the prayer- 
meeting, the man who prays so earnestly 
for -the suppression of all evil in the land, 
the man who when surrounded by his 
brethren in the church denounces in such 
vehement terms the saloon as an instru- 
ment in the hands of the devil for accom- 
plishing his fiendish mission on earth; and 
when you go to him with a petition against 
the saloons or liquor selling drug stores of 
his own town he refuses to write his 
name there for fear some one might see it. 
You ask him for funds with which to prose- 
cute the violaters of the law, and he either 
refuses to give, or he gives upon the 
condition that his name is not to be used in 
connection with it. 



EXTRACTS. ANECDOTES, ETC. I 93 



The man who betters others in trying 
to better himself deserves no honors. He 
who injures others in trying to do them 
good deserves no opprobrium. 
— * — - 
I remember once hearing -a minister 
attempt to prove the divinity of the Bible 
by means of experimental knowledge. I 
have heard many attempt the same thing, 
but the one I have in mind was above the 
average intelligence. He drew a beauti- 
ful picture showing that he knew his 
religion was real and such as would save 
his soul, — or rather such as had already 
saved his soul. He knew this, he said, be- 
cause when he was converted to the faith he 
was filled with joy unspeakable and im- 
measurable. 

This is what I call experimental knowl- 
edge, or what is more commonly called 
"heart felt religion". 

He illustrated the case by putting his 
hand down into his pocket, and he said, "I 
have a dollar io my pocket. I know it be- 



194 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

caused feel it, and yet no one else knows it 
except by my word." Then placing his 
hand on his breast, he said; "1 know I have 
religion, and that religion is a saving religion 
because I feel it. It fills me with joy." My 
friends, what did that man prove? Did he 
prove to you, my unbelieving friend, that 
there is a reality in religion, or that Christ- 
ianity is soul saving? It seems to me that, 
in the bible sense of the word, he came near- 
er proving himself a fool. The last I knew 
of that man he was a drunken sot lounging 
in the slums and wallowing in the gutters of 
one of our western cities. 

"Heart felt religion" is, I believe, a re- 
ality. But that is no proof of the divinity 
of our religion. For so is "heart felt" farm- 
ing a reality; so is "heartfelt" algebra a 
reality: so is "heart felt" theft or murder a 
reality. The mere fact that our conversion 
to the Christian faith fills us with joy does 
not prove that our religion is soul saving. 

I remember once working on a prob- 
lem for hours; I had tried every method at 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 1 95 

all reasonable to me and had almost given 
up in despair when suddenly I discovered 
my mistake, and I worked it out all right. 
I felt at that moment like jumping up from 
my chair and shouting for joy. But does 
that prove to any one that working difficult 
algebra problems would send him to heav- 
en? 

Again, I see a man running for his life. 
He has stolen an honest man's money, and 
the pursuers are close upon him. He is cer- 
tain that if they catch him they will hang 
him to the nearest tree. He reaches a cov- 
er. They pass by without seeing him. That 
man is so filled with joy as to be almost un- 
able to refrain from jumping into the air and 
clapping his hands. Does that prove that 
stealing money from honest men will send 
you to heaven? No. I believe the joy 
that accompanies conversion is a proof of 
the reality of the conversion, and not in any 
way a proof that Christianity is soul saving. 
1 believe this joy is inexact proportion to 
the divergence of the path he has turned to 



I96 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC, 

and the one he has turned from. I believe 
the manner of expressing this joy depends 
upon the temperament of the person con- 
verted. 

To illustrate, two men are walking a- 
long the street. One is a millioniare, the 
other a poor beggar almost starving for 
food. Each unexpectedly comes into the 
possession of five dollars. The millioniare 
simply puts the money into his pocket and 
walks on at his former gait. But watch the 
other. See his face lighten up. See his 
gait quicken, as he goes into the restaurant 
to order a meal He's the jolliest man at 
the table. Why the difference in their ac- 
tions? Simply the difference in the change 
it has wrought in their manner of living. 

Again suppose two persons in exactly 
the same financial circumstances, — miners. 
Suddenly each strikes a rich vein of gold; 
and they are unexpectedly made independ- 
ently rich. The one receives the intelligence 
w ith hardly perceptible emotion. He sim- 
ply sets about immediately to adjust him- 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 1 97 

self and surrounding circumstances to the 
new order of things But see the other. 
He jumps from his chair; leaves it upset on 
the floor; turns the lamp over as he snatch- 
es his hat from the table; runs over two or 
three children in his rush for home; dashes 
into his house; squeezes the breath out of 
his wife in his attempt to hug her; mashes 
her nose in trying to kiss her; snatches the 
baby from the cradle and goes loping round 
the room shouting at the top of his voice 
that he has made his fortune. — What mak- 
es the difference? It is simply the differ- 
ence in the temperaments of the two. One 
is converted from the old manner of doing- 
business to the new just as much as is the 
other. Probably one enjoys his new pos- 
session just as well as does the other. 
— * — 
It would be easier and much more 
pleasant for us to pass over these sins of the 
saints, as so many others are doing, by calling 
them "sins of the flesh". Who ever heard 
of the flesh sinning? Who ever heard of a 



I98 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

dead man's, body committing a sin? Where 
is the man whose right hand will strike his 
neighbor without a command from the mind? 
The mind is the soul; and I should feel more 
at home outside of an insane asylum if I 
called that a sin of the soul instead of a sin 
of the flesh. 



Probably my imagination is not very 
strong; yet I can imagine seeing one of these 
Darwinites, after he has left this world, 
knocking* at the door of heaven for admiss- 
ion. Old St. Peter opens the door and de- 
mands h : s name. I-t is given. "What claim 
have you to admission here?" I seem to 
hear St. Peter ask. The man stands thought- 
fully silent. "You are one that used to 
preach down on the earth that man was de- 
veloped from the monkey, are you not?" 
Asks old St. Peter. "Ye-yes, sir." "And so 
you think you are developed from the mon- 
key, do ycu?" "Ye-ye-yes." "You are mis- 
taken. You are not yet developed, and we 
d > not i dmit nunkeys here." 



EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC I 99 

O, says one of those "good old broth- 
ers," I cannot spare anything at present. My 
wife needs a pair of shoes; my children are 
needing hats; I am trying to educate my 
children; and then I want to lay up some- 
thing for them in the future. If I die I want 
to leave my family in circumstances that 
they may be independent." And he asks 
me "What can you expect of me under the 
circumstances?" My brother, I am not your 
judge. Go to your God for directions. Sat- 
isfy him, and it is little difference whether 
others are satisfied or not. I sav, Go to 
God for directions, but I might as well say, 
Go to the devil, for there is where nine- 
tenths of us go under such circumstances. 
Yes; we go to this devil of covetousness and 
try to imagine we are counciling God. The 
conversation is something like the following: 
"My Lord, [those who worship the devil al- 
ways call him by some dignified name] shall 
I provide for my family with the money I 
have? Shall I educate my children? Shall 
I lay up something for them that they may 



200 EXTRACTS, ANECDOTES, ETC. 

honor their father after he has been c Jled 
to everlasting glory, or shall 1 give this 
money to someone outside af my family?" 
The devil lays his hand on the man's shoul- 
der as he asks; "How much money have 
you?" The man answers. "Well/* says the 
devil, "do you know where you will get the 
next?" — "No,' says the old sinner, '1 do 
not. I have a bunch of cattle, but a disease 
may get among them and kill them before 

1 can ship. I have some wheat to sell, but 
it is not insured against fire, and it may 
burn." — "I see exactly," says the devil, 
patting him on the shoulder, "you area no- 
ble man. You are providing for your fami- 
ly. Would that we bad more such men. 
No; use your money in providing for your 
family, for it is written in the bible; 'If any 
provide not for his own, especially for those 
of his own house, he hath denied the faith, 
and is worse than an infidel.' In the future 
when you have opportunity to give, if you 
can do so without Bo dangerously exposing 
the welfare of your family, do so." And 
the man goes away feeling that he has had 
Communion with his god (and really I 
think he has). 



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